Phenylethanoid

Abstract: The acetone-H2O (9 : 1) extract from the stem of Cistanche deserticola showed a strong free radical scavenging activity. Nine major phenylethanoid compounds were isolated from this extract. They were identified by NMR as acteoside, isoacteoside, 2'-acetylacteoside, tubuloside B, echinacoside, tubuloside A, syringalide A 3'-α-rhamno-pyranoside, cistanoside A and cistanoside F. All of these compounds showed stronger free radical scavenging activities than α-tocopherol on 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical and xanthine/xanthine oxidase (XOD) generated superoxide anion radical (Om2). Among the nine compounds, isoacteoside and tubuloside B, whose caffeoyl moiety is at 6'-position of the glucose, showed an inhibitory effect on XOD. We further studied the effects of these phenylethanoids on the lipid peroxidation in rat liver microsomes induced by enzymatic and non-enzymatic methods. As expected, each of them exhibited significant inhibition on both ascorbic acid/Fe2+ and ADP/NADPH/Fe3+ induced lipid peroxidation in rat liver microsomes, which were more potent than α-tocopherol or caffeic acid.The antioxidative effect was found to be potentiated by an increase in the number of phenolic hydroxyl groups in the molecule.

Abstract: Phenolic compounds are the major bioactive constituents of Forsythia suspensa, an important Chinese herbal medicine used for the treatment of various infectious diseases. Fragmentation behaviors of the phenolic compounds in F. suspensa were investigated by using a high-performance liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC/MS(n)) method. For common phenylethanoid glycosides, the loss of the caffeoyl moiety was the first fragmentation step, then sequential losses of rhamnose, hexose and water were observed in further fragmentations. If a substituent group presented in the beta position, the fragmentation was triggered by initial loss of a substituent group to form structures such as suspensaside A. Then it underwent the common fragmentation pathways as mentioned above, or eliminated characteristic residues of masses 134 or 152 Da, respectively. The latter pathway is reported here for the first time. The fragmentation behaviors of furofuran lignans displayed a typical cleavage of the tetrahydrofuran ring. However, the presence of a hydroxyl group at C-1 led to the successive loss of 30 Da. Neutral loss of CO(2) and benzyl cleavage were characteristic for lignans with a 2,3-dibenzylbutyrolactone skeleton. A neutral loss of 30 Da was also observed in the fragmentation pattern of flavonols. These fragmentation rules were implemented to analyze phenolic compounds in the fruits of F. suspensa. A total of 51 compounds, including 24 phenylethanoid glycosides, 21 lignans and 6 flavonols, were identified or tentatively characterized based on their retention times, UV spectra and MS fragmentation patterns.