(Lamiaceae)

Salvia yunnanensis is a medicinal plant commonly used in the southwest of China. In this study, we sequenced the complete chloroplast (cp) genome sequence of S. yunnanensis to investigate its phylogenetic relationship in the family Lamiaceae. The total length of the cp genome was 151,338 bp, with 38.0% overall GC content and exhibited typical quadripartite structure, a pair of IRs (inverted repeats) of 25,578 bp each were separated by a small single-copy (SSC) region of 17,564 bp and a large single-copy (LSC) region of 82,618 bp. The cp genome contained 114 genes, including 80 protein coding genes, 30 tRNA genes, and 4 rRNA genes. The phylogenetic analysis indicated S. yunnanensis was closely related to S. miltiorrhiza, which afforded a scientific evidence that S. yunnanensis could be used as original species of Radix et Rhizoma Saliviae Miltiorrhizae (Danshen).

Qualitative analysis of the roots of Salvia miltiorrhiza and Salvia yunnanensis based on NIR, UHPLC and LC-MS-MS

Near infrared spectroscopy (NIR) was applied to discriminate the roots of salvia miltiorhiza Bunge (Danshen for short) and Salvia yunnanensis C. H. Wright (Zidanshen for short) by means of principal component analysis (PCA), improved and simplified K nearest neighbors (IS-KNN). Furthermore, an ultra-high performance liquid chromatographic (UHPLC) coupled with photodiode-array detector was developed for building fingerprints of lipophilic components of Danshen and Zidanshen, respectively. Basing on NIR information, both PCA and IS-KNN method classified the two kinds of Chinese medical herbs with 100% accuracy. The chromatographic fingerprints of the lipophilic components of Danshen and Zidanshen have 10 and 12 common peaks, respectively. Liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectroscopy (LC-MS-MS) was applied to identify these peaks. Among these, three small peaks in the fingerprints of Zidanshen are not found in Danshen, one of which was identified as α-lapachone, and the other two compounds were not yet identified; a small peak after tanshinone IIA in the fingerprints of Danshen was not found in Zidanshen, which was identified as miltirone. The two herbs have 10 common lipophilic components. The similarity between the two reference chromatograms of Zidanshen and Danshen is 0.902, but the mean similaritie between Zidanshen (or Danshen) fingerprints and its own reference chromatogram is 0.973 (or 0.976). The contents of main lipophilic components are significantly lower in Zidanshen than in Danshen (P < 0.01 or P < 0.05). The results indicate that the two Chinese medical materials are not only different in NIR spectra, but also different in species and quantities of lipophilic components. NIR spectra analysis can identify Danshen and Zidanshen rapidly and accurately. UHPLC coupled with MS analysis demonstrates the detail differences between the two herbs both in species and contents of their lipophilic components.

Diterpenoids from the Roots of Salvia yunnanensis

Two new diterpenoids, salyunnanins I and J (1 and 2), together with ten analogues, were isolated from the roots of Salvia yunnanensis. The structures of the new isolates, possessing different neo-clerodane and seco-abietane diterpenoid skeletons respectively, were elucidated on the basis of comprehensive spectroscopic data. All of the compounds were tested for the inhibitory activities against six human tumor lines in vitro, and several ones showed moderate cytotoxic activities.

Cytotoxic diterpenoids from Salvia yunnanensis

Forty-six abietane type diterpenoids possessing nine different fused ring systems were characterized from the roots of Salvia yunnanensis, six of which (salyunnanins A-F, 1-6) had different nor-abietane, homo-abietane, seco-abietane, and normal abietane architectures. Their structures were elucidated by comprehensive NMR and MS spectroscopic analyses. The inhibitory activities of these isolates against six human tumor lines were tested in vitro. Several of the compounds exhibited substantial cytotoxicity with IC50 values of 0.86-10.1μM.