Phytochemistry,Metabolism, and Metabolomics of Ginseng

Ginseng, as a medicinal plant, has been used for thousands of years in China, Korea, and Japan, and the study on ginseng is a hotspot in the research field as evidenced by about 7000 scientific papers in PUBMED. In recent decades, many ginseng studies focused on the metabolism and metabolomics of ginseng or its active ingredients using modern bioanalytical technologies. To date, more than 200 ginsenosides and non-saponin constituents have been isolated and identified. In the past decades, rapid development of analytical technologies has facilitated the advancement of ginseng research in many ways. In this review, we focus on the advances of ginseng research in chemistry, pharmacology, and metabolomics. We also provide the comments on the significance as well as challenges of metabolomics-based ginseng studies.

Metabolomic Profiling Reveals Distinct Patterns of Tricarboxylic Acid Disorders in Blood Stasis Syndrome Associated with Coronary Heart Disease

Objective： To investigate the underlying metabolomic profiling of coronary heart disease（CHD） with blood stasis syndrome（BSS）. Methods： CHD model was induced by a nameroid constrictor in Chinese miniature swine. Fifteen miniature swine were randomly divided into a model group（n=9） and a control group（n=6）, respectively according to arandom number table. After 4 weeks, plasma hemorheology was detected by automatic hemorheological analyzer, indices including hematocrit, plasma viscosity, blood viscosity, rigidity index and erythrocyte sedimentation rate; cardiac function was assessed by echocardiograph to detect left ventricular end-systolic diameter（LVED）, left ventricular end-diastolic diameter（LVEDd）, ejection fraction（EF）, fractional shortening（FS） and other indicators. Gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry（GC-MS） and bioinformatics were applied to analyze spectra of CHD plasma with BSS. Results： The results of hemorheology analysis showed significant changes in viscosity, with low shear whole blood viscosity being lower and plasma viscosity higher in the model group compared with the control group. Moreover, whole blood reduction viscosity at high shear rate and whole blood reduction viscosity at low shear rate increased significantly（P〈0.05）. The echocardiograph results demonstrated that cardiac EF and FS showed significant difference（P〈0.05）, with EF values being decreased to 50% or less. The GC-MS data showed that principal component analysis can clearly separate the animals with BSS from those in the control group. The enriched Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes biological pathways results suggested that the patterns involved were associated with dysfunction of energy metabolism including glucose and lipid disorders, especially in glycolysis/gluconeogenesis, galactose metabolism and adenosine-triphosphate-binding cassette transporters. Conclusion： Glucose metabolism and lipid metabolism disorders were the major contributors to the syndrome classification of CHD with BSS.

Metabolomic Analysis of Biochemical Changes in Urine of Osteoarthritis Rat and Interventional Effects of Bushen-Huoxue Herb Couple

Objective Osteoarthritis（OA） is a kind of degenerative arthritis, involving degradation of joints, including articular cartilage and subchondral bone. Bushen-Huoxue Herb Couple（BHHC） is a Chinese herb pair with invigorating the kidney and promoting blood circulation. In our study, a Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometer（GC-MS） based metabolomics was developed to achieve a systematic observation of the progression of OA and evaluate the efficacy of BHHC in OA rats. Methods Forty Sprague-Dawley rats（half males and half females） were randomly divided into five groups, including normal group, OA model group, sham-operated group, BHHC group, positive medicine（PM） group after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction and meniscectomy on rats. Urine samples for analysis were collected on week 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, and 14 during the experiment. Results The histological results showed that BHHC had a strong action of repairment and reconstruction of joint damage. By combining with partial least squares discriminant analysis（PLS-DA）, 14 biomarkers were identified in urine samples. The biomarkers were mainly involved 10 metabolism pathways, such as tricarboxylic acid cycle metabolism, acid amino metabolism, tryptophan metabolism, lipid metabolism and phenylalanine metabolism. Using these potential biomarkers as a screening index, it indicated that BHHC could reverse the pathological process of OA through regulating amino acid metabolism, lipid metabolism, nucleotide metabolism and energy metabolism. Conclusions This study demonstrates that a metabolomics is a useful tool for identifying potential OA biomarkers and investigating the underlying mechanisms of Traditional Chinese Medicine in OA treatment.