LAUSR

IntroductionThe pharmacological activities of medicinal plants are reported to be due to a wide range of metabolites, therein, the concentrations of which are greatly affected by many genetic and/or environmental factors. In this context, a metabolomics approach has been applied to reveal these relationships. The investigation of such complex networks that involve the correlation between multiple biotic and abiotic factors and the metabolome, requires the input of information acquired by more than one analytical platform. Thus, development of new metabolomics techniques or hyphenations is continuously needed.ObjectivesFeasibility of high performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC) were investigated as a supplementary tool for medicinal plants metabolomics supporting 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR) spectroscopy.MethodThe overall metabolic difference of plant material collected from two species (Rheum palmatum and Rheum tanguticum) in different geographical locations and altitudes were analyzed by 1H NMR- and HPTLC-based metabolic profiling. Both NMR and HPTLC data were submitted to multivariate data analysis including principal component analysis and orthogonal partial least square analysis.ResultsThe NMR and HPTLC profiles showed that while chemical variations of rhubarb are in some degree affected by all the factors tested in this study, the most influential factor was altitude of growth. The metabolites responsible for altitude differentiation were chrysophanol, emodin and sennoside A, whereas aloe emodin, catechin, and rhein were the key species-specific markers.ConclusionThese results demonstrated the potential of HTPLC as a supporting tool for metabolomics due to its high profiling capacity of targeted metabolic groups and preparative capability.