Analysis of non-volatile metabolites and quantitation of the anti-arthritic alkaloid sinomenine from blood fruit (Haematocarpus validus (Miers) Bakh.f. ex Forman).

Haematocarpus validus (Miers) Bakh. f. ex Forman, a lesser-known fruit and medicinal plant of high nutraceutical and medicinal value, is used as anti-arthritic, hepatoprotective, and anti-inflammatory agents in ethnomedicine. Metabolome studies in H. validus are a virgin area of research and here we report the spectra of non-volatiles present in the methanolic leaf and fruit extract, using high-resolution liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. Furthermore, the alkaloid sinomenine was quantified using high-performance thin layer chromatography spectrodensitometric analysis owing to its pharmacological importance as anti-arthritic and anti-inflammatory drug. Electrospray ionization with protonation in positive mode was selected for the analysis and the spectral data was interrogated using MassHunter software. A total of 40 compounds were identified from leaf and fruit samples and the major classes of compounds identified were alkaloids, terpenoids, steroids, tripeptides, vitamins, and related compounds. For separation and quantitation of sinomenine, chloroform:methanol:water (60:30:6.5, v/v) was used as the mobile phase and sinomenine hydrochloride as reference compound. The analysis confirmed the presence of sinomenine in both non-defatted and defatted methanolic leaf extract with quantities 45.73 and 26.02 mg/100 g dry weight, respectively. H. validus is a non-conventional source of sinomenine, the anti-arthritic and anti-inflammatory alkaloid. Sinomenine detected in this study supports the ethnomedicinal uses of H. validus as an anti-arthritic agent. Further study is needed to elucidate the underlying molecular mechanism of its anti-arthritic attributes as well as the corresponding structure-activity relationships.

Wild edible fruit crop Haematocarpus validus (Miers) Bakh.f. ex Forman (Khoon phal): a novel source of nutraceuticals.

Bioprospecting of underexplored plants opens up new avenues for developing value added products, ready-to-use herbal formulations and nutraceuticals. This study investigates the volatile metabolome and mineral composition of Haematocarpus validus (Khoon phal), an ethnic fruit crop of tropical Asia. H. validus is used for curing hepatic diseases, anemic and inflammatory conditions in ethnic medicine. Analysis of EI mass spectra on GC-MS platform detected 54 and 48 compounds from fruit and leaf extract respectively. Quinic acid (a hepato-protectant) predominates among volatiles in fruit (29.13%) and unsaturated fatty acids in leaf (61%). Through HP-TLC spectrodensitometric study, quinic acid was quantified as 292.95 mg/100 g dry weight. Five macroelements and 17 microelements were analyzed using ICP-AES and ICP-MS respectively. H. validus fruit has very high K/Na ratio (280.65) and both fruit and leaf are rich in Fe content (57.29 and 38.44 mg/100 g dry weight respectively). High unsaturated fatty acid/ saturated fatty acid ratio and abundance of linoleic acid (55.54% of total fatty acids) in leaf along with relatively high content of conjugated linoleic acid suggest its potential usefulness in pharmaceutical and nutraceutical industry. This is the first report on volatile metabolome of H. validus fruit and leaf. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13197-021-04997-7.