Diabetes is a worldwide severe health issue which causes various complications. This study aimed to evaluate the hypoglycemic effects of Rehmannia glutinosa (RG), Coptis chinensis (CC) alone and their combination on high-fat-diet-induced diabetes in mice via biochemical assays and UPLC-Q/TOF-MS-based serum metabolomic analysis. Diabetic KK-Ay mice were induced by high-fat diet and treated for eight weeks, separately with RG, CC and their combination and the positive control drug metformin. Administration of RG and CC alone, and their combination could decrease the fasting blood glucose level, ameliorate the tolerance of glucose, and recover the levels of total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) in sera of diabetic mice. Orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) on serum metabolomes revealed that 79 ESI⁺ and 76 ESI⁻ metabolites were changed by diabetes mellitus (DM) compared to the normal control. Heatmaps on these diabetes-related metabolites showed that CC and RG/CC were clustered closer with the normal control, indicating that they had the better antidiabetic effects at the metabolite level. Fifteen of the differential metabolites in DM serum were annotated and their related metabolic pathways were lipid metabolism. These data suggested that RG and CC alone and in combination treatment had the antidiabetic activity in lowering glycemia and improving lipid metabolism. UPLC-Q/TOF-MS-based metabolomics shed light on the differential metabolite effects of RG and CC in DM treatment. However, it should be noted that some differential metabolites were possibly generated or not detected due to our groupwise run order, which possibly contributed to or covered the group difference in our experiment. They need to be further discriminated in the future work.

Background: To adapt seasonal climate changes under natural environments, Polygonatum sibiricum seeds have a long period of epicotyl morphophysiological dormancy, which limits their wide-utilization in the large-scale plant progeny propagation. It has been proven that the controlled consecutive warm and cold temperature treatments can effectively break and shorten this seed dormancy status to promote its successful underdeveloped embryo growth, radicle emergence and shoot emergence. To uncover the molecular basis of seed dormancy release and seedling establishment, a SMRT full-length sequencing analysis and an Illumina sequencing-based comparison of P. sibiricum seed transcriptomes were combined to investigate transcriptional changes during warm and cold stratifications. Results: A total of 87,251 unigenes, including 46,255 complete sequences, were obtained and 77,148 unigenes (88.42%) were annotated. Gene expression analyses at four stratification stages identified a total of 27,059 DEGs in six pairwise comparisons and revealed that more differentially expressed genes were altered at the Corm stage than at the other stages, especially Str_S and Eme. The expression of 475 hormone metabolism genes and 510 hormone signaling genes was modulated during P. sibiricum seed dormancy release and seedling emergence. One thousand eighteen transcription factors and five hundred nineteen transcription regulators were detected differentially expressed during stratification and germination especially at Corm and Str_S stages. Of 1246 seed dormancy/germination known DEGs, 378, 790, and 199 DEGs were associated with P. sibiricum MD release (Corm vs Seed), epicotyl dormancy release (Str_S vs Corm), and the seedling establishment after the MPD release (Eme vs Str_S). Conclusions: A comparison with dormancy- and germination-related genes in Arabidopsis thaliana seeds revealed that genes related to multiple plant hormones, chromatin modifiers and remodelers, DNA methylation, mRNA degradation, endosperm weakening, and cell wall structures coordinately mediate P. sibiricum seed germination, epicotyl dormancy release, and seedling establishment. These results provided the first insights into molecular regulation of P. sibiricum seed epicotyl morphophysiological dormancy release and seedling emergence. They may form the foundation of future studies regarding gene interaction and the specific roles of individual tissues (endosperm, newly-formed corm) in P. sibiricum bulk seed dormancy.

Epimedium folium is the major medicinally-used organ of Epimedium species and its metabolic changes during the leaf growth have not been studied at the metabolomic level. E. pubescens is one of five recorded species in the Pharmacopoeia of the People’s Republic of China and widely grows in China. A UPLC-ESI-MS/MS-based targeted metabolomic analysis was implemented to explore the metabolite composition in E. pubescens leaves under the cultivation condition and further to investigate their temporal variations among four representative growth stages. A total of 403 metabolites, including 32 hitherto known in Epimedium species, were identified in E. pubescens leaf, of which 302 metabolites showed the growth/development-dependent alterations. Flavonoid-type compounds were the major composition of the metabolites identified in this study. Most flavonoids, together with tannin-type and lignans and coumarin-type compounds, were up-regulated with E. pubescens leaf growth and maturation after the full flowering stage. Our results not only greatly enriched the existing Epimedium phytochemical composition database and also, for the first time, provided the metabolomics-wide information on metabolic changes during E. pubescens leaf growth and development, which would facilitate in the choice of an optimum harvest time to balance a higher biomass yield of Epimedium folium with its better medicinal quality.

Introduction: Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge is an important medicinal herb, which is widely cultivated in most parts of China. It has attracted considerable attention because of its pharmacological properties and potential health benefits.Methods: We used a field experiment to determine the effects of different genotypes and climatic factors on the performance (plant biomass, morphological parameters), active ingredients, rhizosphere soil physicochemical properties and microbial composition of S. miltiorrhiza at five cultivation locations.Results: The results showed that these parameters were significantly different in the six different genotypes of S. miltiorrhiza from five producing areas. Genotype and soil physicochemical properties were the main factors affecting the growth traits of S. miltiorrhiza, while genotype, climate and soil physicochemical properties were the main factors affecting the content of active components of S. miltiorrhiza. Microbial phospholipid fatty acid analysis showed that the biomass of Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria was affected by the genotypes of S. miltiorrhiza plants, while the biomass of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, fungi, Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria was affected by climate factors.Discussion: Based on the main results, DS993 was the most suitable genotype for S. miltiorrhiza in the five producing areas from the perspective of comprehensive growth traits and medicinal components, while DS993 and DS2000 were suitable for planting in Shandong province from the perspective of origin. DS996 is not suitable for all of the above production areas. These results are helpful to understand the ecological adaptability of different genotypes of S. miltiorrhiza resources, and to select appropriate S. miltiorrhiza genotypes for specific planting areas, so as to maximize yield and quality.

Most Polygonatum species are widely used in China as a source of medicine and food. In this study, a UPLC-QTOF-MS/MS system was used to conduct an untargeted metabolomics analysis and compare the classes and relative contents of metabolites in the seeds of four Polygonatum species: P. sibiricum (Ps), P. cyrtonema (Pc), P. kingianum (Pk), and P. macropodium (Pm). The objectives of this study were to clarify the metabolic profiles of these seeds and to verify their medicinal and nutritional value via comparative analyses. A total of 873 metabolites were identified, including 185 flavonoids, 127 lipids, 105 phenolic acids, and 36 steroids. The comparative analysis of metabolites among Polygonatum seed samples indicated that flavonoids, steroids, and terpenoids were the main differentially abundant compounds. The results of principal component analysis and hierarchical clustering were consistent indicating that the metabolites in Ps and Pm are similar, but differ greatly from Pc and Pk. The data generated in this study provide additional evidence of the utility of Polygonatum seeds for producing food and medicine.

Chemometric analysis of bioactive compounds revealed that American ginsengs (AGs) from different cultivation regions of China had a difference in quality, which indicates their possible pharmacological difference. A UPLC-Q/TOF-MS-based untargeted metabolomic approach was used to uncover serum metabolite changes in radiated mice pre-administered with AG root decoctions from seven cultivation regions and to further assess their quality difference. OPLS-DA revealed that 51 metabolites (ESI⁻) and 110 (ESI⁺) were differentially expressed in sera between the control and the radiated model mice. Heatmap analysis further revealed that AG could not reverse most of these radiation-altered metabolites, which indicates dietary supplement of AG before cobalt radiation had the weak potential to mediate serum metabolites that were altered by the sub-lethal high dose radiation. In addition, 83 (ESI⁻) and 244 (ESI⁺) AG altered metabolites were detected in radiated mice under radiation exposure. Both OPLS-DA on serum metabolomes and heatmap analysis on discriminant metabolites showed that AGs from different cultivation regions differentially influenced metabolic alterations in radiated mice, which indicates AGs from different cultivation regions showed the pharmacological difference in modulation of metabolite changes. AGs from Shandong, Shanxi, and Beijing provinces had more similar pharmacological effects than AGs from USA, Canada, Jilin, and Heilongjiang. Finally, 28 important potential biomarkers were annotated and assigned onto three metabolic pathways including lipid, amino acid, and energy metabolisms.