Systematic metabolic profiling and bioactivity assays for bioconversion of Aceraceae family

A survey on ethnoveterinary medicines used by the tribal migratory shepherds of Northwestern Himalaya

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE

Tribal migratory shepherds (Gaddi) living in the Northwestern Himalayan region are well known for their nomadic lifestyle in which tribal migratory shepherds along with their livestock which mainly include sheep and goat migrate seasonally in the Northwestern Himalayan region from high hills to low hills for the survival of their livestock from cold winters and hot summer. Due to harsh environmental conditions, heavy snowfall, heavy rainfall, wild animal attacks, no medical facilities, no transportation, and no electricity facilities tribal migratory shepherds mostly rely on plant species mentioned for ethnoveterinary use to treat livestock disease.

AIM OF STUDY

The aim of our study is to conduct ethnoveterinary survey for the first time to document the contemporary oral ethnoveterinary knowledge of Gaddi shepherds living in Northwestern Himalayan region.

METHODOLOGY

The documentation of plant species mentioned for ethnoveterinary use was executed through extensive field surveys from 2017 to 2019. Data were collected through direct interviews by administrating questionnaire among tribal migratory shepherds.

RESULTS

A total of 181 plant species mentioned for ethnoveterinary use belonging to the same or different families were documented during the seasonal migration of shepherds from Northwestern Himalayan region. Most frequently occurring family of plant species mentioned for ethnoveterinary was Poaceae, leaves and roots were reported to be the most frequently used plant parts. Most frequently documented plant species for ethnoveterinary use were Cynodon dactylon, Chenopodium album, Zanthoxylum armatum, Aloe vera, Azadirachta indica and Cannabis sativa. Chrysopogon serrulatus, Cynodon dactylon, and Vitex negundo were reported with high use reports. Some of the endemic species of Northwestern Himalayan region such as Elymus himalayanus and Euphorbia pilosa and one endangered species Picrorhiza kurrooa were reported in current study.

CONCLUSION

It is observed that there is a need to raise awareness among the tribal migratory shepherds about the sustainable use and conservation of some of the plant species mentioned for ethnoveterinary use. This study provided an inventory of plant species mentioned for ethnoveterinary use having significant ethnoveterinary potential, however there is need of scientific evaluations by in vitro, in vivo and clinical studies.

Incorporating LC-MS/MS Analysis and the Dereplication of Natural Product Samples into an Upper-Division Undergraduate Laboratory Course

Growth in the biomedical and biotechnology sectors requires a highly trained and highly skilled workforce to answer the next great scientific questions. Undergraduate laboratory courses incorporating hands-on training based in authentic research position soon-to-be graduates to learn in environments that mirror that of academic, industrial, and government laboratories. Mass spectrometry is one of the most broadly applied analyses carried out in the biomedical and pharmaceutical sciences and thus it is essential that upper-division students gain hands-on experience in techniques and analytical workflows in mass spectrometry. Our pre-course assessments identified weaknesses in student experience and knowledge in the fundamentals of mass spectrometry, supporting that it was a necessary area for improvement. We incorporated a laboratory experiment focused on tandem mass spectrometry and database searching into a preexisting mini-semester project devoted to identifying metabolites from medicinal plants. Implementation of the experiment allowed students to make more confident metabolite identifications, introduced them to a cutting-edge database analysis platform (GNPS: Global Natural Products Social Molecular Networking), and increased student experience and knowledge of mass spectrometry in addition to the principle of dereplication of samples derived from nature.

Exploring the metabolomic diversity of plant species across spatial (leaf and stem) components and phylogenic groups

BACKGROUND

Plants have been used as an important source of indispensable bioactive compounds in various cosmetics, foods, and medicines. However, the subsequent functional annotation of these compounds seems arduous because of the largely uncharacterized, vast metabolic repertoire of plant species with known biological phenotypes. Hence, a rapid multi-parallel screening and characterization approach is needed for plant functional metabolites.

RESULTS

Fifty-one species representing three plant families, namely Asteraceae, Fabaceae, and Rosaceae, were subjected to metabolite profiling using gas chromatography time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC-TOF-MS) and ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography quadrupole orbitrap ion trap tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-Q-orbitrap-MS/MS) as well as multivariate analyses. Partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) of the metabolite profiling datasets indicated a distinct clustered pattern for 51 species depending on plant parts (leaves and stems) and relative phylogeny. Examination of their relative metabolite contents showed that the extracts from Fabaceae plants were abundant in amino acids, fatty acids, and genistein compounds. However, the extracts from Rosaceae had higher levels of catechin and ellagic acid derivatives, whereas those from Asteraceae were higher in kaempferol derivatives and organic acids. Regardless of the different families, aromatic amino acids, branch chain amino acids, chlorogenic acid, flavonoids, and phenylpropanoids related to the shikimate pathway were abundant in leaves. Alternatively, certain amino acids (proline, lysine, and arginine) as well as fatty acids levels were higher in stem extracts. Further, we investigated the associated phenotypes, i.e., antioxidant activities, affected by the observed spatial (leaves and stem) and intra-family metabolomic disparity in the plant extracts. Pearson's correlation analysis indicated that ellagic acid, mannitol, catechin, epicatechin, and quercetin derivatives were positively correlated with antioxidant phenotypes, whereas eriodictyol was positively correlated with tyrosinase inhibition activity.

CONCLUSIONS

This work suggests that metabolite profiling, including multi-parallel approaches and integrated bioassays, may help the expeditious characterization of plant-derived metabolites while simultaneously unraveling their chemodiversity.