Quality Evaluation Between Cultivated And Wild Species Of Sophorae Flavescentis Radix Based On Growing Cycle

Kushen,Sophorae Flavescentis Radix(SFR),is the root of Sophors flavescens,also named DiHuai,ShuiHuai,KuGu and YeHuai,grown in the mountainous or slope region in shrub forest.skiophilous and multi-ridden.As a traditional Chinese medicine,SFR was firstly recorded in the "Shen Nong's Herbal Classic of Materia Medica " and it was classified as medium-grade strength drug.mainly distributed in Shanxi,Hebei,Henan and other places in China.It has many pharmacological activities,such as anti-inflammatory,antitumor,anti-bacterial,anti-virus and other activities,with distinguishing features of bitter in taste and cold-tropism.It is widely use in clinic and health-care due to its' excellent efficacy,and then the consume requirements for it was highly increased,which lead to the wild resources reaching to the endranger situation.To meet the market requirements,a large amount of cultivated SFR plant-bases were set up.Due to wild species was used in clinics for thounsands of years,the problem was rised to ask quality of cultivating species is consistence or not with that of wild ones.So,it was necessary to systemly evaluate the homogeneity betweem the cultivated and wild SFR to make sure that the cultivated one can be safely and efficacily use for clinics.Although some quality analysis were reported about the traditional identifacation and quantitative dertermination of several active components to demonstrate the homogeneity or heterogeneity between wild and cultivated sorces of SFR,the systemic quality evaluation were not carried out.Consideration of the impoutance of samples tangibility,data comparability and results reliability,all the samples in this study were collected by autherazation and ourself,processed and dried procedures by well designed protocols.The distribution resources of SFR were also investigated to obtain representative samples to meet the requirements of research designs.The geographic informations were recorded immediately for all the collected samples with sufficient amount for later authorization re-verification and other uses.And each sample should collected in case of any checking were needed.The samples distributed in main suitable production areas,such as Shanxi,Shaanxi,Gansu,Nei Mongo,Hebei,Chongqing,Guizhou,Guangxi and Sichuan,were collected.The harvest seasons of SFR were traditionally selected within early spring and later autumn.To eliminate the possible diferencs caued by harvest time,samples from same area were strictly collected.Over 160 samples,85 samples from wild and 79 samples from cultivated,were collected in autumn and next spring,respectively.The main research work of this article was to evaluated the chemistry differences between wild and cultivated SFR by “totality-of-the-evidence” approach with many type chemical ingredients,such as alkaloids,flavonoids,organic acids and polysaccharides.1.AlkaloidsAlkaloids of SFR were deeply investigated in past years due to its widely and strong activities.6 Main alkaloids in SFR,oxymatrine,oxysophocarpine,sophoridine,Nmethylcytisine,matrine and sophocarpine,were determined quantitatively.The conclusion of analytical results was suggested that no differences were observed between two sources of SFR.2.FlavonoidsFlavonoids in SFR were another important active ingredients having anti-inflammation and anti-virus activities.Few attentions about them,their contents in SFR were unknown in overall profile.A HPLC method to simultaneously determine the 10 flavonoids in SFR was established.The results of quantitative analysis were also demonstrated that no significant difference between the cultivated and wild botanical drug raw materials.3.Psidiolic acidIn the past decades,almost all the research works about the components of SFR were focus on the two types above.Organic acids as coexist substances with alkaloids were commonly found in natural plants.Fortunately,a large amount of strong water soluble component was separated and identified as psidiolic acid by our research group.Psidiolic acid having wide biological activities related the functions of SFR,can be benifited to the accumulation of alkaloids in herbs.Contents of psidiolic acid were quantitatively determined for the first time to understand the quality characteristic profile,and no differences between the cultivated and wild ones were also found.Contents of psidiolic acid in SFR were from 3% to 4% in all the available samples.4.PolysaccharideThe polysaccharide contents in SFR were investigated also,and measurable ingredients were known up to about 30% calculated by methanol extract.And the results also indicated that there was no significant differences between cultivated and wild products.5.Fingerprint characteristicsTo comprehensively understand whether there was the differences,whole components HPLC fingerprint were used to distinguish different samples.35 Different representative samples,including both wild and cultivated SFR in various provinces,were analyzed,and the results was that all the samples showed high similarity,which indicated that no significant differences between the wilded and cultivated,and also,all the samples has no religional differences.6?Traditional identificationFor the processed slice,we can also distinguish the wilds from the cultivated ones.The cross section of the cultivated materials are dense,and the xylem and phloem were not easy to separate,but the section of wilds was loose,and the xylem often separated with and phloem.However,it can not distinguish between the two forms just through the microscopical identification,since both of them share all the typical attributes normally associated with SFR.7?AppearanceIn this paper,we also compared the differences of their appearance,and significant differences were founded.They can be distinguished easily from the plants.The cultivated variety with thicker,green,larger and thicker leaves,and the wild one,the leaves were thiner,yellowish,and sparse.For the stems,the cultivated ones were thick and strong,with dense foliage.But the wild one,its' stems were thin and flexible,with less stems.For the roots,there were also differences,the cultivared one has more lateral roots than wild one.Based on all the data above,“totality-of-the-evidence” approach was used to systemly evaluated both the wild and culivated samples.We can concluded that the cultivated botanical drug raw material can be replaced the wild sorce and can be used for clinics to ensure the quality consistency.But the quality consistency still need more pharmacodynamics evidences to finalize according to the “totality-of-the-evidence” approach.