Forsythiae Fructus (FF), the dried fruit of Forsythia suspensa, has been widely used as a heat-clearing and detoxifying herbal medicine in China. Green FF (GF) and ripe FF (RF) are fruits of Forsythia suspensa at different maturity stages collected about a month apart. FF undergoes a complex series of physical and biochemical changes during fruit ripening. However, the clinical uses of GF and RF have not been distinguished to date. In order to comprehensively compare the chemical compositions of GF and RF, NMR-based metabolomics coupled with HPLC and UV spectrophotometry methods were adopted in this study. Furthermore, the in vitro antioxidant and antibacterial activities of 50% methanol extracts of GF and RF were also evaluated. A total of 27 metabolites were identified based on NMR data, and eight of them were found to be different between the GF and RF groups. The GF group contained higher levels of forsythoside A, forsythoside C, cornoside, rutin, phillyrin and gallic acid and lower levels of rengyol and β-glucose compared with the RF group. The antioxidant activity of GF was higher than that of RF, but no significant difference was observed between the antibacterial activities of GF and RF. Given our results showing their distinct chemical compositions, we propose that NMR-based metabolic profiling can be used to discriminate between GF and RF. Differences in the chemical and biological activities of GF and RF, as well as their clinical efficacies in traditional Chinese medicine should be systematically investigated in future studies.

Background: At present, Astragalus mongholicus products on the market represent two growth patterns: imitative wild A. mongholicus (WAM) and cultivated A. mongholicus (CAM). The 6-year-old WAM (A6) and 2-year-old CAM (B2) products are often sold as commodities. This study aimed to explore the effects of the abovementioned growth patterns on the biosynthetic mechanisms of isoflavone accumulation in A. mongholicus products. Results: In this paper, the content of calycosin-7-O-β-D-glucoside in 6-year-old WAM (A6) was significantly higher than that in 2-year-old CAM (B2) based on high-performance liquid chromatography. Tissue anatomy indicated that A6 has developed phloem fibers, thickened secondary walls, and a more well-developed vascular system than B2. Thirteen differentially accumulated metabolites were found in A6 and B2 by UHPLC-ESI-Q-TOF-MS/MS, of which isoflavones were highly and significantly enriched in A6. By combining transcriptomics and metabolomics analysis, we found that the metabolomics profile was the same as the transcriptomics profile in both A6 and B2. In total, 11 novel isoflavone-related genes were isolated using BLAST and functional annotation through RNA-Seq and Iso-Seq. The results of integrated analysis, Short Time-series Expression Miner analysis, and Pearson correlation analysis showed that the regulation of four key enzymes, cinnamate 4-hydroxylase, 6-deoxychalcone synthase, chalcone reductase, and chalcone isomerase, led to the high accumulation of isoflavones in A6. In addition, AmUFGT (c778119) and AmUCGT (c303354) were predicted to be 7-O-glycosyltransferases by phylogenetic analysis; these genes catalyze formononetin and calycosin, respectively. Conclusions: The findings of this work will clarify the differences in the biosynthetic mechanism of isoflavone accumulation between A6 and B2, which will guide the cultivation of A. mongholicus.

Radix polygalae, the dried roots ofPolygala tenuifoliaandP. sibirica, is one of the most well-known traditional Chinese medicinal plants. Radix polygalae contains various saponins, xanthones, and oligosaccharide esters and these compounds are responsible for several pharmacological properties. To provide basic breeding information, enhance molecular biological analysis, and determine secondary metabolite biosynthetic pathways ofP. tenuifolia, we applied Illumina sequencing technology and de novo assembly. We also applied this technique to gain an overview ofP. tenuifoliatranscriptome from samples with different years. Using Illumina sequencing, approximately 67.2% of unique sequences were annotated by basic local alignment search tool similarity searches against public sequence databases. We classified the annotated unigenes by using Nr, Nt, GO, COG, and KEGG databases compared with NCBI. We also obtained many candidates CYP450s and UGTs by the analysis of genes in the secondary metabolite biosynthetic pathways, including putative terpenoid backbone and phenylpropanoid biosynthesis pathway. With this transcriptome sequencing, future genetic and genomics studies related to the molecular mechanisms associated with the chemical composition ofP. tenuifoliamay be improved. Genes involved in the enrichment of secondary metabolite biosynthesis-related pathways could enhance the potential applications ofP. tenuifoliain pharmaceutical industries.

Astragaloside IV (AS-IV) is a representative component of astragaloside saponins in dried roots of Astragali Radix. Astragaloside possesses a broad spectrum of pharmacological activities, including antibacterial, anti-fibrosis, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and neuroprotective effects. However, the role of AS-IV in antiaging remains unclear. In this article, we studied the function of AS-IV in antiaging by using the Caenorhabditis elegans ( C. elegans ) model. We showed that AS-IV can prolong the lifespan of C. elegans in a natural aging model, a paraquat injury model, and a heat stress model and improve the movement capacity of nematodes. ¹ H-NMR data indicate an improvement of glutamate content and a decrease in glucose in the AS-IV treatment group compared with the control. Further investigation revealed that AS-IV can induce the mRNA expression of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) genes and increase the activities of SOD and CAT in the nematode. Interestingly, AS-IV could not extend the lifespan of sod-1 , sod-2 , sod-3 , sod-4 , sod-5 , ctl-1 , ctl-2 , ctl-3 , and daf-16 mutants. These data indicate that AS-IV prevents aging via mainly improving age-related functional declines, the antioxidant capacity of nematodes and partially modulating the insulin/insulin growth factor 1 signaling pathway activity. Our results provide new insights into how AS-IV prevents and treats aging.