Journal of Food and Drug Analysis (JFDA)
【Update Date:2022-09-15】unit:
Exploring the relationship between metabolite composition and the cold/hot properties ascribed in traditional Chinese medicine by mass spectral molecular networking–a pilot study
Chun-Han Su a,b,c, Yu-Chieh Cheng a,d, Kuei-Hung Lai e,f, Yu-Chia Chang b, Chi-Hui Sun a, Po-Wen Tu a,d, Ching-Chih Lin a,d, Tsong-Long Hwang b,g,h,i, **, Yu-Liang Yang a,d,*
a Agricultural Biotechnology Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei 115201, Taiwan
b Research Center for Chinese Herbal Medicine, Graduate Institute of Health Industry Technology, College of Human Ecology, Chang Gung University of Science and Technology, Taoyuan 333324, Taiwan
c Department of Food Science, College of Human Ecology, Fu Jen Catholic University, New Taipei City 242062, Taiwan
d Biotechnology Center in Southern Taiwan, Academia Sinica, Tainan 711010, Taiwan
e PhD Program in Clinical Drug Development of Herbal Medicine, College of Pharmacy, Taipei Medical University, Taipei 110301, Taiwan
f Graduate Institute of Pharmacognosy, College of Pharmacy, Taipei Medical University, Taipei 110301, Taiwan
g Graduate Institute of Natural Products, College of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan 333323, Taiwan
h Department of Anesthesiology, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taoyuan 333423, Taiwan
i Department of Chemical Engineering, Ming Chi University of Technology, New Taipei City 243303, Taiwan
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been applied to improve human health for millennia. In the TCM system, “medicinal property” (yao xing; hot and cold properties) is a core concept used to describe the influences of medicinal materials on human physiological conditions, and metabolites are believed to be one of the major ingredients of TCMs that affect their medicinal property. However, due to a lack of comprehensive analyses of TCM metabolomes, information about the relationships between TCM metabolite composition and medicinal property remains limited. In this pilot study, a mass spectral molecular networking-based platform was established and applied to systematically profile the metabolome of 24 TCMs with various medicinal properties. The molecular networks were built based on the liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) data from 50% EtOH extracts of 24 TCMs. The results showed that various classes of metabolites were clustered in the molecular networks, and the potential medicinal property-associated molecular families were filtered by screening the medicinal property and the diversity of TCM sources. For example, some specific types of flavonoids were identified in the representative cold-property (han xing) molecular families. In contrast, due to the limited sample size, the representative and universal hot-property (re xing) molecular family has not been well revealed. In summary, this study provides methodology and information on the potential relationships between the metabolite composition and the concept of medicinal property in TCM. Furthermore, the results can serve as a foundation for mass spectral molecular networking-based analysis of TCM metabolomes, facilitating TCM research and development.
Keywords: LC-MS/MS; Medicinal property; Metabolome mining; Molecular networking; Traditional Chinese medicine
https://doi.org/10.38212/2224-6614.3425