Search Results (3)

Xanthii Fructus (XF) not only has medicinal function in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) but also contains rich oil and protein. The aim of this research was to develop the edible value of its protein based on the investigation on the extraction, basic characteristics and functions, safety, gut microbiota, and metabolomics, especially the effect of the concocting process. The proteins from raw and concocted XF were prepared using two methods: alkaline solubilization followed by acid precipitation and ammonium sulfate salting-out, respectively. The secondary structure and physicochemical properties of the proteins were characterized through spectroscopic analysis and property determination. The effects of alkaline and the concocting process on the proteins were systematically compared. The results indicated that the salting-out method could retain the protein activity better. Both alkali treatment and the concocting process altered the folding state of proteins. The toxicological results in mice indicated that a high dose (0.35 g/kg) of raw Xanthii Fructus protein (XFP) might cause damage to the liver and small intestine, and the concocting process could significantly alleviate the damage. The 16S rRNA sequencing technology was used to untangle their impact on gut microbiota in mice and the result showed that raw protein had a certain regulatory effect on Bifidobacterium, Rhodococcus, Lactococcus, and Clostridium, while the concocted protein had a smaller impact, mainly affecting Bacteroides and Bifidobacterium. The untargeted metabolomics using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) showed that the proteins of raw XF affected the metabolic level through cysteine and methionine metabolism, purine metabolism, amino sugar and nucleotide sugar metabolism pathways, and the concocted protein mainly involved histidine metabolism and purine metabolism pathways. Overall, XFP had potential development prospects, but the anti-nutritional factors might have some toxicity. The concocting process could significantly improve its safety, and the concocted proteins were worth developing as a food source. In the future, the processing conditions should be further optimized and more systematic investigation should be performed to ensure the safety of XF as a food source. Full article

Xanthii Fructus (XF) is known as a medicinal plant. It has been used as a traditional medicine because of its high biological efficacy. However, there have been few comprehensive studies on the specific chemical composition of the plant and consequently, the information is lacking for the mechanism of the natural product metabolites in humans. In this study, an efficient analytical method to characterize and discriminate two species of Xanthii Fructus (Xanthium canadense Mill. and Xanthium sibiricum Patrin ex Widder) was established. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs), polar metabolites, and fatty acids were classified by integrated sample preparation, which allowed a broad range for the detection of metabolites simultaneously. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) followed by a multivariate statistical analysis was employed to characterize the chemical compositions and subsequently to discriminate between the two species. The results demonstrate that the two species possess obviously diverse chemical characteristics of three different classifications, and discriminant analysis was successfully applied to a number of chemical markers that could be used for the discrimination of the two species. Additional quantitative results for the selected chemical markers consistently showed significant differences between the two species. Full article

As a valuable herbal medicine, the fruits of Xanthium strumarium L. (Xanthii Fructus) have been widely used in raw and processed forms to achieve different therapeutic effects in practice. In this study, a comprehensive strategy was proposed for evaluating the active components in 30 batches of raw and processed Xanthii Fructus (RXF and PXF) samples, based on high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with photodiode array detection (HPLC-PDA). Twelve common peaks were detected and eight compounds of caffeoylquinic acids were simultaneously quantified in RXF and PXF. All the analytes were detected with satisfactory linearity (R² > 0.9991) over wide concentration ranges. Simultaneously, the chemically latent information was revealed by hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) and principal component analysis (PCA). The results suggest that there were significant differences between RXF and PXF from different regions in terms of the content of eight caffeoylquinic acids. Potential chemical markers for XF were found during processing by chemometrics. Full article