Honeysuckle (the dried flower bud or opening flower of Lonicera japonica Thunb.), a medicinal and edible substance, has is greatly popular among consumers for its remarkable health effects, such as antioxidant, antibacterial, and anti-inflammatory effects. However, due to the influences of processing methods, storage conditions, and other factors, honeysuckles show different colors which can directly reflect the quality and the price on the market. In order to comprehensively compare the quality of different colors, 55 batches of honeysuckle samples were collected and analyzed. Their color parameters, chlorophyll content (chl), total phenol content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC), antioxidant activity (AA), main active compounds, and metabolites were measured. As a result, the initial green-white (GW) samples, a kind of highest-quality honeysuckle, had the smallest a* value, largest h*, chl, TPC, TFC, and AA values, and highest content of chlorogenic acid and cynaroside. There was a significant difference between GW samples and a series of discolored samples. As the color darkened or lightened, the quality gradually decreased. The yellow-brown (YB) samples were of the worst quality and were no longer available for clinical and health purposes. A series of differential metabolites, such as quercetin-7-O-glucoside and secologanoside, could be used as important references to evaluate the quality of differently colored samples. The metabolic profile of honeysuckle provided new insights into the process of color change and laid a foundation for further honeysuckle quality control. The correlation results showed that the a* and h* values significantly affect the abovementioned quality indicators and the 10 main active compounds. In other words, the color difference could directly reflect the quality and clinical efficacy. Multiple regression analysis was carried out using combined L*, a*, and b* values to predict the quality of honeysuckle. This is the first time the quality of different color honeysuckle samples on the post-harvest link has been systematically compared and a demonstration of medicinal and edible substances with different colors has been provided.

Semi-preparative and preparative high-speed counter-current chromatography (HSCCC) were successfully used for isolation of five glycosides from 50% ethanol extract of the dried barks of Ilex rotunda Thunb. (Aquifoliaceae) by using a two-phase solvent system composed of ethyl acetate-n-butanol-water (1:6:7, v/v/v). From 1.0 g of the extract, syringaresinol 4′,4″-di-O-β-D-glucopyranoside ( I , 20.2 mg, 55.4% purity), syringin ( II , 56.8 mg, 98.1% purity), sinapaldehyde glucoside ( III , 26.2 mg, 68.6% purity), syringaresinol 4′-O-β-D-glucopyranoside ( IV , 20.4 mg, 95.3% purity), and pedunculoside ( V , 45.1 mg, 97.3% purity) were obtained by one run of TBE-1000A HSCCC instrument with 1000 mL of column volume. Glycosides I (9.8 mg, 95.5% purity) and III (14.2 mg, 97.8% purity) were further purified by preparative high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Their structures were identified by IR, MS, and ¹H and ¹³C NMR studies. Glycoside I was isolated from this plant for the first time.

Near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy with chemometric techniques was applied to discriminate the geographical origins of crude drugs (i.e., dried ripe fruits of Trichosanthes kirilowii) and prepared slices of Trichosanthis Fructus in this work. The crude drug samples (120 batches) from four growing regions (i.e., Shandong, Shanxi, Hebei, and Henan Provinces) were collected, dried, and used and the prepared slice samples (30 batches) were purchased from different drug stores. The raw NIR spectra were acquired and preprocessed with multiplicative scatter correction (MSC). Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to extract relevant information from the spectral data and gave visible cluster trends. Four different classification models, namely K-nearest neighbor (KNN), soft independent modeling of class analogy (SIMCA), partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA), and support vector machine-discriminant analysis (SVM-DA), were constructed and their performances were compared. The corresponding classification model parameters were optimized by cross-validation (CV). Among the four classification models, SVM-DA model was superior over the other models with a classification accuracy up to 100% for both the calibration set and the prediction set. The optimal SVM-DA model was achieved when C =100, γ = 0.00316, and the number of principal components (PCs) = 6. While PLS-DA model had the classification accuracy of 95% for the calibration set and 98% for the prediction set. The KNN model had a classification accuracy of 92% for the calibration set and 94% for prediction set. The non-linear classification method was superior to the linear ones. Generally, the results demonstrated that the crude drugs from different geographical origins and the crude drugs and prepared slices of Trichosanthis Fructus could be distinguished by NIR spectroscopy coupled with SVM-DA model rapidly, nondestructively, and reliably.

Pedunculoside and syringin are two bioactive compounds in herbal tea and Chinese drug Jiubiying, the dried barks of Ilex rotunda Thunb. In the present study, the enrichment and purification of pedunculoside and syringin were investigated on the macroporous resins. The evaluation results of performance and adsorption characteristics of eight macroporous resins indicated that SP825 was most suitable for the separation of pedunculoside and syringin. Based on the series of experiments of separation, dynamic adsorption, and desorption on the column of SP825 resin, the optimal conditions were determined as follows: processing volume: 2 BV; temperature: 25°C; for desorption of syringin: ethanol-water (30:70, v/v), 4 BV as an eluent, flow rate: 1.0 mL/min/cm²; for desorption of pedunculoside:ethanol–water (60:40, v/v), 5 BV as an eluent, flow rate: 1.0 mL/min/cm². One-step treatment of 600 mL Jiubiying extract containing 4.346 mg/mL pedunculoside and 1.478 mg/mL syringin, yielded 7.04 g (29.6% purity) crude pedunculoside powder and 2.32 g (31.0% purity) crude syringin powder. Followed by repeated recrystallization in methanol, 1600 mg pedunculoside with 99% purity, and 533 mg syringin with 96% purity were obtained. The method provides a new approach for scale-up enrichment and purification of pedunculoside and syringin from Jiubiying extract.

The differences of volatile components in male (MFB) and female flower buds (FFB) of Populus × tomentosa were analysed and compared by HS-SPME with GC-MS for the first time. A total of 34 compounds were identified. Two clusters were clearly divided into male and female by hierarchical clustering analysis. Both the male and female flower buds showed methyl salicylate (22.83 and 24.09%, respectively) and 2-hydroxy-benzaldehyde (10.05 and 12.41%, respectively) as the main volatile constituents. The content of 2-cyclohexen-1-one, benzyl benzoate, and methyl benzoate in FFB was remarkably higher than in MFB. In contrast, the content of ethyl benzoate in MFB was greater than that in FFB. The phenomena showed the characteristic differences between MFB and FFB of P. × tomentosa, which enriched the basic studies on dioecious plant.

A high‐performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) fingerprint method with multivariate statistical analyses was applied to discriminate the male and female barks of Populus tomentosa for the first time. The samples of 11 male and 13 female barks of mature P. tomentosa were collected in Beijing. The chemical fingerprint of methanol extract was established by HPLC method with diode array detector (DAD). The principal component analysis (PCA), hierarchical clustering analysis (HCA), and supervised orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS‐DA) were applied to discriminate male and female barks based on the area of common peaks identified in HPLC fingerprints. A clear grouping trend (R²X, 0.83; Q², 0.595) among the male and female samples was exhibited by PCA score plot. Two groups were clearly divided into male and female samples by HCA. Both male and female samples were well discriminated with OPLS‐DA (R²X, 0.775; Q², 0.795). Seven potential chemical markers were screened by variable importance in projection (VIP values >1.0) of OPLS‐DA model and four of them were identified as micranthoside, siebolside B, sakuranin, and isosakuranin. The HPLC fingerprint combined with multivariate statistical analyses could be used to discriminate the gender of barks of P. tomentosa and revealed the differences in chemical components, which enriched the basic studies on dioecious plant.