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Chemical Constituents, Hypolipidemic, and Hypoglycemic Activities of Edgeworthia gardneri Flowers

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Abstract

The flowers of Edgeworthia gardneri are used as herbal tea and medicine to treat various metabolic diseases including hyperglycemia, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia. This paper investigate the chemical constituents and biological activities of ethanolic extract and its different fractions from E. gardneri flowers. Firstly, the E. gardneri flowers was extracted by ethanol-aqueous solution to obtain crude extract (CE), which was subsequently fractionated by different polar organic solution to yield precipitated crystal (PC), dichloromethane (DCF), ethyl acetate (EAF), n-butanol (n-BuF), and residue water (RWF) fractions. UHPLC-ESI-HRMS/MS analysis resulted in the identification of 25 compounds, and the main compounds were flavonoids and coumarins. The precipitated crystal fraction showed the highest phenolic and flavonoid contents with 344.4 ± 3.38 mg GAE/g extract and 305.86 ± 0.87 mg RE/g extract. The EAF had the strongest antioxidant capacity and inhibitory effect on α-glucosidase and pancreatic lipase with IC50 values of 126.459 ± 7.82 and 23.16 ± 0.79 µg/mL. Besides, both PC and EAF significantly regulated the glucose and lipid metabolism disorders by increasing glucose consumption and reducing TG levels in HepG2 cells. Molecular docking results suggested that kaempferol-3-O-glucoside and tiliroside had good binding ability with enzymes, indicating that they may be potential α-glucosidase and pancreatic lipase inhibitors. Therefore, the E. gardneri flowers could be served as a bioactive agent for the regulation of metabolic disorders.

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Funding

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32060542), Yunnan Major Natural Science Foundation (202202AG050009), Yunnan High-Level Talents Innovation Program (grant numbers YNWR-QNBJ-2020-226 and YNWR-QNBJ-2020-246), and the High-level Talent Promotion and Training Project of Kunming (2022SCP003).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Faculty of Food Science and Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650500, China

    Xiaoyu Zhang, Hongbin Zhang, Jiahong Dong, Jianxin Cao, Yaping Liu & Guiguang Cheng

  2. Department of Chemistry, Liaocheng University, Liaocheng, 252059, China

    Qingwang Xue

  3. Key Laboratory of Chemistry in Ethnic Medicinal Resources, State Ethnic Affairs Commission and Ministry of Education, Yunnan Minzu University, Kunming, 650500, China

    Jinghao Zhao & Yudan Wang

Authors
  1. Xiaoyu Zhang
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  3. Jinghao Zhao
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  4. Hongbin Zhang
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  8. Yaping Liu
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Contributions

X.Z.: Conceptualization, Methodology, Data curation, Writing; Q.X. and J.Z.: Investigation, Data curation, Software; H.Z. and J.D.: Investigation; J.C. and Y.W.: Visualization, Supervision; Y.L.: Supervision, Funding acquisition; G.C.: Writing – review & editing, Funding acquisition, Project administration.

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Correspondence to Yaping Liu or Guiguang Cheng.

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Zhang, X., Xue, Q., Zhao, J. et al. Chemical Constituents, Hypolipidemic, and Hypoglycemic Activities of Edgeworthia gardneri Flowers. Plant Foods Hum Nutr (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11130-024-01154-1

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