A Simple and Rapid High-Performance Liquid Chromatography Method for Preparation and Content Detection of the Mainly Numbing Taste Substances of Zanthoxylum bungeanum Maxim

As the characteristic numbing taste substances, hydroxyl-α-sanshool (HAS) and hydroxyl-β-sanshool (HBS) were considered vital indicators to evaluate the quality of Zanthoxylum bungeanum Maxim. However, it is very difficult to obtain their high-purity monomers individually, as the only difference between HAS and HBS is that C-6 cis-trans isomerism. In our study, a simple and rapid Ag +-HPLC method was developed to pure the standard chemicals of Z. bungeanum with numbing taste, and 1H NMR and 13C NMR were employed to determine the purity and structure. Moreover, an HPLC method was established to determine the content of numbing taste components of 16 varieties of Z. bungeanum from different regions. The analytical methods were validated for accuracy, precision, and linearity, respectively. The validated method was accurate (spiked recoveries 0.94-1.10), precise in terms of peak area (intra-day RSDs <1.25% and inter-day RSDs <1.61%), and linear (r2 ≥ 0.999). It was found that there were significant differences in the content of HAS and HBS among different types of Z. bungeanum, with HAS content ranging from 60.06 ± 1.14 to 164.13 ± 3.28 mg/g and HBS ranging from 7.81 ± 0.36 to 21.11 ± 0.75 mg/g. The RSDs of HAS range were 1.73-3.80% and that of HBS range 2.03-4.73% (RSDs ≤5%), which indicated that the measurements of HAS and HBS were reliable.

leaves

Zanthoxylum bungeanum Maxim., an important spice plant, is rich in volatile components and has formed several cultivars in China. Genetic variation among different cultivars has significant effects on volatile components. In this study, a total of 52 volatile compounds were detected from 11 cultivars of Z. bungeanum, among which palmitic acid, (+)-limonene, phytol, β-caryophyllene, and terpinyl acetate were screened as characteristic compounds, with palmitic acid and phytol contributing the most to the volatile composition. Combined with the results of chemometric and content analyses, three Z. bungeanum chemotypes were identified: (+)-limonene, β-caryophyllene + terpinyl acetate, and palmitic acid + phytol. In addition, the dynamics of the accumulation of its main components were explored, and the optimal harvest period for Z. bungeanum leaves (late July or early August) was clarified. Moreover, histochemical analysis results showed that terpenoids were mainly accumulated in the oil cells of Z. bungeanum leaves, and there were some differences in the number of oil cells in different chemotypes of Z. bungeanum, which might affect the yield and quality of volatile components. The results showed that the differences of chemical composition among diverse chemotypes of Z. bungeanum might be an important factor leading to the quality differences of the same planting resources. Accordingly, the study on the classification of Z. bungeanum chemotypes and the accumulation patterns of major chemical components is of great theoretical significance and practical value as a favorable guarantee for the development and utilization of Z. bungeanum resources and quality control.

Fructus Zanthoxyli extract improves glycolipid metabolism disorder of type 2 diabetes mellitus via activation of AMPK/PI3K/Akt pathway: Network pharmacology and experimental validation

OBJECTIVE

This study investigated the potential mechanisms behind the beneficial effects of Fructus Zanthoxyli (FZ) against type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) based on network pharmacology and experimental validation.

METHODS

Ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with hybrid quadrupole-orbitrap high-resolution mass spectrometry, and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry were used to identify the constituents of FZ. Next, the differentially expressed genes linked to the treatment of diabetes with FZ were screened using online databases (including Gene Expression Omnibus database and Swiss Target Prediction online database), and the overlapping genes and their enrichment were analyzed by Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG). Finally, the pathway was verified by in vitro experiments, and cell staining with oil red and Nile red showed that the extract of FZ had a therapeutic effect on T2DM.

RESULTS

A total of 43 components were identified from FZ, and 39 differentially expressed overlapping genes were screened as the possible targets of FZ in T2DM. The dug component-target network indicated that PPARA, PPARG, PIK3R3, JAK2 and GPR88 might be the core genes targeted by FZ in the treatment of T2DM. Interestingly, the enrichment analysis of KEGG showed that effects of FZ against T2DM were closely correlated with the adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK) and phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K)/protein kinase B (Akt) signaling pathways. In vitro experiments further confirmed that FZ significantly inhibited palmitic acid-induced lipid formation in HepG2 cells. Moreover, FZ treatment was able to promote the AMPK and PI3K/Akt expressions in HepG2 cells.

CONCLUSION

Network pharmacology combined with experimental validation revealed that FZ extract can improve the glycolipid metabolism disorder of T2DM via activation of the AMPK/PI3K/Akt pathway.

Comparative metabolomics analysis of pericarp from four varieties of Zanthoxylum bungeanum Maxim

A qualitative and quantitative analysis of metabolites was performed by metabolomics comparation on the pericarps of four varieties of Zanthoxylum bungeanum Maxim. The Zanthoxylum bunganum as scion combined with three rootstock varieties of Zanthoxylum piasezkii Maxim (YJ), July Zanthoxylum bunganum Maxim (QJ), and August Zanthoxylum bunganum Maxim (BJ), at the same time Zanthoxylum bungeanum seedlings breeding were compared as control (MJ). A total of 1429 metabolites were identified in Zanthoxylum bungeanum Maxim pericarps based on chromatography and mass spectrometry dual detection platform. While the metabolites between four varieties of Z. bungeanum varied, there was identified 31, 15, 7, 79, 42, 19 down-regulated and 55, 50, 13, 75, 43, 27 up-regulated differential metabolites between MJ and BJ, MJ and QJ, MJ and YJ, QJ and BJ, YJ and BJ, YJ and QJ. Meanwhile, the differential metabolites composition was distinct among various varieties of Z. bungeanum and dominant by phenolic compounds flavonoid and phenolic acids, especially highest in varieties July Zanthoxylum bunganum Maxim. Highlight A comparative metabolomics analyzed in four varieties of Zanthoxylum bungeanum pericarp.Total 1429 metabolites were identified and mainly in flavonoid and phenolic acid.July and August Zanthoxylum bunganum Maxim has highest antioxidant capacity.The rootstock July Zanthoxylum bunganum Maxim was recommended in Loess Plateau.

Neofusicoccum parvum Causing Stem and Branch Blight Disease of Zanthoxylum bungeanum in Sichuan, China

The Chinese pepper Zanthoxylum bungeanum Maxim is a special economically important species and a traditional spice in China. It is widely used in medicine, food, timber, tourism, soil and water conservation. In April 2019, A stem and branch blight disease of Z. bungeanum was discovered in Muli, Puge and Yanyuan counties, in Liangshan Prefecture (27°15'20″-27°19'38″N, 101°44'58″-102°04'10″E), causing approximately 15% yield loss in the three counties. Among all fields in Muli County, approximately 41.38%, 10.79% and 2% of Chinese peppers exhibited mild, moderate and severe branch blight, respectively. The symptoms started to occur from March to April. First, red-brown spots on the base of the stem, branches or main trunks of young trees observed but were not obvious. In May, the spots became gray-brown to dark brown ovals and gradually expanded into long strips (Figure 1a, b). When the spots surrounded the branches, the branches above them withered and died, and the spots gradually expanded downward. Around June or July, scattered black dot-shaped fruiting bodies were observed on the lesion. The branches of infected trees were sampled systematically by cutting the branch at the junction of infected and healthy areas in 5×5 mm sections. Each sample was surface-sterilized with 3% NaClO and 75% alcohol for 60 s before being rinsed three times with sterilized distilled water. The sterile filter paper was used to dry the tissue, and the samples were cultured on potato dextrose agar (PDA) amended with streptomycin sulfate (50 μg/ml). Plates were incubated at 25°C in the dark. From the five isolates obtained, four exhibited the morphology described by Yu et al. (2015) for Neofusicoccum parvum. The colonies were white fluffy at first and grew fast (Figure 1c). After five days, the colony diameter reached 75.2-84.8 mm, produced yellow pigment and the mycelium in the middle of the colony began to turn gray (Figure 1d). and the entire colony turned dark gray 7-8 days post culturing as observed previously (Javier-Alva et al. 2009) and formed a black fruiting body at 20 days (Figure 1e). The width of the mycelium measured 2.3-4.8 µm, and with the diaphragm (Figure 1f). The spores were round or fusiform, colorless, transparent, smooth, thin-walled, and measured 6.3-10.6×3.1-5.2 µm (Figure 1g, h), similar to N. parvum (Yu et al. 2013). For molecular identification, DNA was extracted from the mycelia of four fungal isolates using a plant genomic DNA extraction kit (Solarbio, Beijing). Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) was performed with the primers ITS1/ITS4 (White et al. 1990), EF446F/EF1035R (Inderbitzin et al. 2005), BTF/BTR2 and HspF3/HspR (Inderbitzin et al. 2010) for the ribosomal internal transcribed spacer region (ITS), elongation factor-1alpha (EF1-alpha), beta-tubulin (TUB) and heat shock protein (HSP) genes, respectively. BLAST searches in the GenBank database indicated that the ITS, TUB, HSP and EF-1α sequences had 100%, 99.0%, 99.7% and 99.7% identity to N. parvum, respectively. Representative sequences were deposited in GenBank (ITS: MT355871; TUB: MT409397; EF-1α: MT409399; HSP: MT460413). A pathogenicity test was performed using N. parvum on ten 2-year-old potted Z. bungeanum plants at 22-28°C and 60% humidity indoors. The conidial suspension (1×107 conidia/ml) collected 25 days old PDA cultures with 0.05% tween buffer was used for inoculation by brushing the wounded area of branch scratched by epidermis with a piece of sandpaper. Ten plants in pots were inoculated with sterile water and served as controls. Thirty days post-inoculation, the plants showed the same symptoms as the original diseased plants, and the controls remained asymptomatic. N. parvum was re-isolated from the infected tissues and identified by morphological characteristics and DNA sequence analysis. The pathogenicity test was repeated three times with similar results, confirming Koch's postulates. This fungus is an important pathogen on a variety of woody hosts, and represents a serious problem in the vineyards worldwide (Mélanie, et al. 2017). To our knowledge, this is the first report of N. parvum causing stem and branch blight of Z. bungeanum trees in China.

Discrimination of Zanthoxylum bungeanum Maxim through volatile aroma compounds analysis with artificial neural network

Zanthoxylum bungeanum Maxim (ZBM), a special spice from Chinese different areas, have a widespread variation in quality and price. To avoid the commercial adulteration of ZBM, it is necessary to discriminate them from different areas. As volatile aroma compounds (VAC) have the potential to discriminate ZBM, electronic nose (E-nose) was used to preliminarily discriminate the VAC through sensor response analysis, radar chart analysis, and principal component analysis. Then, Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was utilized to identify VAC through hierarchical cluster analysis and quantitative analysis. Finally, artificial neural network (ANN) was employed to assess the accuracy of the discrimination of ZBM. As a result, we found that ZBM could be successfully discriminated between Chinese Sichuan and the other areas. Our findings would provide guidance for evaluating and predicting the variation of VAC of ZBM from different areas in further study. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: Zanthoxylum bungeanum Maxim (ZBM) is a traditional and important spice used in Sichuan cuisine especially hotpot, which are famous all over overseas. However, the ZBM from different producing areas bring various flavors, hampering the quality of Sichuan cuisine developing toward to standardization. Therefore, the authors in this work pursuit an effective way to distinguish the ZBM produced in Sichuan rather than in other province. According to the results of the present study, ZBM could be successfully discriminated between Chinese Sichuan and the other producing areas by using E-nose and GC-MS through artificial neural network. These findings would provide the guidance for evaluating the producing areas of ZBM to be whether or not Sichuan, which could offer the practical help in the purchase of the raw material in the supply chain. Besides, these also can be applied to predict the variation of volatile aroma compounds of the ZBM in the further study.

Network Pharmacology-Based Strategy for the Investigation of the Anti-Obesity Effects of an Ethanolic Extract of Zanthoxylum bungeanum Maxim

Network pharmacology is considered as the next paradigm in drug discovery. In an era when obesity has become global epidemic, network pharmacology becomes an ideal tool to discover novel herbal-based therapeutics with effective anti-obesity effects. Zanthoxylum bungeanum Maxim (ZBM) is a medicinal herb. The mature pericarp of ZBM is used for disease treatments and as spice for cooking. Here, we used the network pharmacology approach to investigate whether ZBM possesses anti-obesity effects and reveal the underlying mechanism of action. We first built up drug–ingredient–gene symbol–disease network and protein–protein interaction network of the ZBM-related obesity targets, followed by Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway enrichment analyses. The results highlight apoptosis as a promising signaling pathway that mediates the anti-obesity effects of ZBM. Molecular docking also reveals quercetin, a compound in ZBM has the highest degree of connections in the compound-target network and has direct bindings with the apoptotic markers. Furthermore, the apoptotic effects of ZBM are further validated in 3T3-L1 adipocytes and in the high-fat diet–induced obesity mouse model. These findings not only suggest ZBM can be developed as potential anti-obesity therapeutics but also demonstrate the application of network pharmacology for the discovery of herbal-based therapeutics for disease treatments.

Comparison of volatile components in fresh and dried Zanthoxylum bungeanum Maxim

Fresh and dried Zanthoxylum bungeanum Maxim volatiles of two main cultivars including Dahongpao and Meihuajiao, were determined through GC-MS and compared. In all the tested samples, linalool, d-limonene, eucalyptol, 3-nonanone, and β-myrcene were identified as the five predominant components. The percentages of these components in fresh Dahongpao were 23.89%, 21.04%, 7.46%, 5.63% and 5.87%, respectively. Similar percentages, 27.28%, 17.62%, 6.39%, 1.66% and 7.8%, were found in dried Dahongpao. In general, the contents of linalool and β-myrcene in dried Dahongpao and Meihuajiao were slightly higher than those in fresh samples, whereas the contents of d-limonene, eucalyptol, and 3-nonanone were lower. Partial least squares discriminant analysis results showed that the two cultivars could be clearly differentiated based on volatiles, whereas, the fresh and dried Zanthoxylum bungeanum Maxim samples could not. This demonstrated that the drying process had no significant effect on the volatiles.

Efficient Approach for the Extraction and Identification of Red Pigment from Zanthoxylum bungeanum Maxim and Its Antioxidant Activity

Red pigment (RP) was extracted from the peels of Zanthoxylum bungeanum Maxim (PZB) by ultrasonic-assisted extraction (UAE) in this work. Box⁻Behnken design⁻response surface methodology (BBD-RSM) was employed to research the efficiency of the RP extraction. Based on the optimization of RSM, results showed that the optimal extraction conditions were as follows: liquid⁻solid ratio of 31 mL/g, extraction time of 41 min, and extraction temperature of 27 °C, and under these conditions, the actual absorbance value was 0.615 ± 0.13%, highly agreeing with the predicted value by the model. Furthermore, ultra-performance liquid chromatography⁻mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS) was used to separate and analyze RP. The compounds of RP were mainly flavonoids, and there were five compounds detected for the first time in PZB. In addition, RP showed significant antioxidant activities in vitro, which could be developed for anti-aging candidate drugs and functional foods. In conclusion, ultrasound-assisted extraction with BBD-RSM and chromatographic separation technology with UPLC-MS are efficient strategies for the isolation and identification of RP from PZB.

nov., a novel nematicidal bacterium isolated from Chinese red pepper (Zanthoxylum bungeanum Maxim) leaves in China

A novel strain, 1433^T, was isolated from leaves of Chinese red pepper (Huajiao, Zanthoxylum bungeanum Maxim) collected from Gansu province in northwestern China, and was characterised by a polyphasic approach. Cells of strain 1433^T were observed to be Gram-stain positive, aerobic, asporogenous, rod shaped, motile and to have peritrichous flagella. The strain was observed to grow at a range of temperatures and pH, 4-45 °C (optimum 28-32 °C) and 6.0-10.0 (optimum pH 6.0-7.0), respectively. Growth was found to occur in the presence of 0-7% (w/v) NaCl [optimum 0-3% (w/v)]. The G+C content of the genomic DNA was determined to be 41.9 mol% and the cell wall peptidoglycan found to contain meso-diaminopimelic acid. The predominant menaquinone was identified as MK-7 and the major polar lipids as diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, an unidentified polar lipid and three unidentified phospholipids. The major cellular fatty acids were identified as iso-C_15:0 (31.6%), anteiso-C_15:0 (26.9%) and iso-C_14:0 (17.1%). Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain 1433^T is a member of the genus Bacillus and is closely related to Bacillus aryabhattai DSM 21047^T (99.4% sequence similarity) and Bacillus megaterium DSM 32^T (99.2%). DNA-DNA relatedness of the novel strain 1433^T with B. aryabhattai DSM 21047^T and B. megaterium DSM 32^T was 33.8 ± 2.8% and 28.9 ± 3.4%, respectively. On the basis of the polyphasic evidence presented, strain 1433^T is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Bacillus, for which we propose the name Bacillus zanthoxyli sp. nov. The type strain is 1433^T (= CCTCC AB 2016326^T = KCTC33730^T).