Isolation of Echimidine and Its C-7 Isomers from Echium plantagineum L. and Their Hepatotoxic Effect on Rat Hepatocytes.

Echimidine is the main pyrrolizidine alkaloid of Echium plantagineum L., a plant domesticated in many countries. Because of echimidine's toxicity, this alkaloid has become a target of the European Food Safety Authority regulations, especially in regard to honey contamination. In this study, we determined by NMR spectroscopy that the main HPLC peak purified from zinc reduced plant extract with an MS [M + H]+ signal at m/z 398 corresponding to echimidine (1), and in fact also represents an isomeric echihumiline (2). A third isomer present in the smallest amount and barely resolved by HPLC from co-eluting (1) and (2) was identified as hydroxymyoscorpine (3). Before the zinc reduction, alkaloids (1) and (2) were present mostly (90%) in the form of an N-oxide, which formed a single peak in HPLC. This is the first report of finding echihumiline and hydroxymyoscorpine in E. plantagineum. Retroanalysis of our samples of E. plantagineum collected in New Zealand, Argentina and the USA confirmed similar co-occurrence of the three isomeric alkaloids. In rat hepatocyte primary culture cells, the alkaloids at 3 to 300 µg/mL caused concentration-dependent inhibition of hepatocyte viability with mean IC50 values ranging from 9.26 to 14.14 µg/mL. Our discovery revealed that under standard HPLC acidic conditions, echimidine co-elutes with its isomers, echihumiline and to a lesser degree with hydroxymyoscorpine, obscuring real alkaloidal composition, which may have implications for human toxicity.

Isolation of 1-(3',4'-Dihydroxyphenyl)-3-(2″,4″,6″-trihydroxyphenyl)-propan-2-ol from Grape Seed Extract and Evaluation of its Antioxidant and Antispasmodic Potential.

HPLC profiling of phenolics in grape seed extracts revealed a prominent peak of an unknown substance with concentrations up to 5.3%. Spectroscopic data allowed the identification of the compound 1 as 1-(3',4'-dihydroxyphenyl)-3-(2″,4″,6″-trihydroxyphenyl)-propan-2-ol. 1 is known to be produced from catechin and epicatechin through anaerobic bacteria from human, as well as the rat, intestines. It was hypothesized that the marc remaining after expression of juice from grapes became infested during storage, resulting in the production of 1. Because compound 1 is infrequently found in nature and has never been found in grape seeds, its presence may be considered a marker of an unwanted anaerobic bacterial process occurring during production. The antioxidant potential of 1 was determined by DPPH, ABTS, and FRAP (ferric reducing antioxidant power) assays and compared to the potential of the following compounds: phloroglucine, pyrogallol, gallic acid, catechin, and epicatechin. Furthermore, it was established that 1 significantly reduced guinea pig ileum contraction induced by histamine.

Trimeric and Tetrameric A-Type Procyanidins from Peanut Skins.

Peanut skins are a rich source of oligomeric and polymeric procyanidins. The oligomeric fractions are dominated by dimers, trimers, and tetramers. A multistep chromatographic fractionation led to the isolation of four new A-type procyanidins of tri- and tetrameric structures. The structures of the new trimers were defined by NMR, electronic circular dichroism, and MS data as epicatechin-(4ß→8,2ß→O→7)-epicatechin-(4ß→8,2ß→O→7)-catechin, peanut procyanidin B (3), and epicatechin-(4ß→8,2ß→O→7)-epicatechin-(4ß→6)-catechin, peanut procyanidin C (4). The new tetramers were defined as epicatechin-(4ß→8,2ß→O→7)-epicatechin-(4ß→6)-epicatechin-(4ß→8,2ß→O→7)-catechin, peanut procyanidin E (1), and epicatechin-(4ß→8,2ß→O→7)-epicatechin-(4ß→6)-epicatechin-(4ß→8,2ß→O→7)-epicatechin, peanut procyanidin F (2). In addition, both A-type dimers A1, epicatechin-(4ß→8,2ß→O→7)-catechin, and A2, epicatechin-(4ß→8,2ß→O→7)-epicatechin, as well as two known peanut trimers, ent-epicatechin-(4ß→6)-epicatechin-(4ß→8,2ß→O→7)-catechin, peanut procyanidin A (5), and epicatechin-(4ß→8)-epicatechin-(4ß→8,2ß→O→7)-catechin, peanut procyanidin D (6), were also isolated. Dimer A1, the four trimers, and two tetramers were evaluated for anti-inflammatory activity in an in vitro assay, in which LPS-stimulated macrophages were responding with secretion of TNF-α, a pro-inflammatory cytokine. Tetramer F (2) was the most potent, suppressing TNF-α secretion to 82% at 8.7 µM (10 µg/mL), while tetramer E (1) at the same concentrations caused a 4% suppression. The results of the TNF-α secretion inhibition indicate that small structural differences, as in peanut procyanidin tetramers E and F, can be strongly differentiated in biological systems.

Conformational equilibria in selected A-type trimeric procyanidins.

A-type procyanidin trimers cinnamtannin B-1, cinnamtannin D-1, lindetannin, and aesculitannin B were studied in terms of their conformation and interaction with four solvents: methanol, acetone, DMSO and pyridine. The experiments demonstrated that for each trimer there are two principal conformers observable in the NMR. The ratio of the conformers (rotamers) depends on the structure of a given trimer as well as on the solvent used for NMR measurements. The DFT calculations (B3LYP/6-31G(d,p)) proved the presence of two main conformers to be the result of a steric hindrance that prevents free rotation along the B-type interflavan bond. An analysis of the solvent-procyanidin interactions showed that the strong electron donating solvents, pyridine and DMSO, favor different conformers from methanol and acetone, which prefer the lowest-energy gas phase conformer. These findings are in line with predictions of DFT/M06-2X calculations with the inclusion of the thermal corrections. The variations in the rotamer ratios in the studied solvents correlate with the solvent's capacity to induce local changes in the electron density of the particular procyanidin trimer.

Ion mobility-mass spectrometry for the separation and analysis of procyanidins.

Procyanidins are polymeric flavan-3-ones occurring in many plants with antioxidant and other beneficial bioactivities. They are composed of catechin and epicatechin monomeric units connected by single carbon-carbon B-type linkages or A-type linkages containing both carbon-carbon and carbon-oxygen-carbon bonds. Their polymeric structure makes analysis of procyanidin mixtures always difficult. Evaluation of procyanidins according to degree of polymerization (DP) using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) is time-consuming and at best has resolved polymeric families up to DP-17. To expedite studies of procyanidins, the utility of positive ion electrospray ion mobility-mass spectrometry (IM-MS) was investigated for the rapid separation and characterization of procyanidins in mixtures. Applying IM-MS to analyse structurally defined standards containing up to five subunits, procyanidins could be resolved in less than 6 ms not only by degree of polymerization but also by linkage type. A-type procyanidins could be resolved from B-type and both could be at least partially resolved from mixed-type procyanidins of the same DP. IM-MS separated higher order procyanidins with DP of at least 24 from extracts of cranberry. As DP increased, the abundances of multiply-charged procyanidins also increased. During IM-MS of ions of similar m/z, the ion drift times decreased inversely with increasing charge state. Therefore, IM-MS was shown to separate mixtures of procyanidins containing at least 24 interconnected subunits in less than 16 ms, not only according to DP, but also according to linkage type between subunits and charge state.