Angelica Radix, the roots of the genus
Angelica, has been used for more than 2,000 years as a traditional medicine in Eastern Asia. The Chinese Pharmacopoeia records more than 100 herbal formulae containing
Angelica roots. There are two common sources of
Angelica
[...] Read more.
Angelica Radix, the roots of the genus
Angelica, has been used for more than 2,000 years as a traditional medicine in Eastern Asia. The Chinese Pharmacopoeia records more than 100 herbal formulae containing
Angelica roots. There are two common sources of
Angelica roots,
Angelica sinensis from China and
A. gigas from Korea. The two species of
Angelica roots differ in their chemical compositions, pharmacological properties and clinical efficacy.
1H-NMR metabolic profiling has recently emerged as a promising quality control method for food and herbal chemistry. We explored the use of
1H-NMR metabolic profiling for the quality control of Angelica Radix. Unlike previous work, we performed the metabolic profiling on hot water extracts, so as to mimic the clinically relevant preparation method. Unsupervised principle component analyses of both the full spectral profile and a selection of targeted molecules revealed a clear differentiation of three types of
Angelica roots. In addition, the levels of 13 common metabolites were measured. Statistically significant differences in the levels of glucose, fructose and threonine were found between different sources of
Angelica. Ferulic acid, a marker commonly used to evaluate
Angelica root, was detected in our samples, but the difference in ferulic acid levels between the samples was not statistically significant. Overall, we successfully applied
1H-NMR metabolic profiling with water extraction to discriminate all three sources of
Angelica roots, and obtained quantitative information of many common metabolites.
Full article