wilforgine and triptolide

Tripterygium wilfordii Hook. f. is the traditional medicinal plants in China. Triptolide, wilforgine, and wilforine are the bioactive compounds in T. wilfordii. In this study, the contents of three metabolites and transcription levels of 21 genes involved in three metabolites biosynthesis in T. wilfordii were examined using high-performance liquid chromatography and reverse transcription PCR after application of methyl jasmonate (MeJA) on hairy roots in time course experiment (3-24 h). The results indicated that application of MeJA inhibited triptolide accumulation and promoted wilforgine and wilforine metabolites biosynthesis. In hairy roots, wilforgine content reached 693.36 μg/g at 6 h after adding MeJA, which was 2.23-fold higher than control. The accumulation of triptolide and wilforine in hairy roots increased the maximum at 9 h, which was 1.3- and 1.6-folds more than the control. Most of the triptolide secretes into the medium, but wilforgine and wilforine cannot secrete into the medium. The expression levels of unigenes which involved terpenoid backbone biosynthesis exist the correlation with marker metabolites (triptolide, wilforgine and wilforine) after induction by MeJA, and can be then used to infer flux bottlenecks in T. wilfordii secondary metabolites accumulation. These results showed that these genes may have potential applications in the metabolic engineering of T. wilfordii metabolites production.

Topics: Acetates; China; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; Cyclopentanes; Diterpenes; Drugs, Chinese Herbal; Epoxy Compounds; Lactones; Molecular Structure; Oxylipins; Phenanthrenes; Plants, Medicinal; Pyridines; Terpenes; Tripterygium

The adventitious root of Tripterygium wilfordii was used as experiment material to study effects of various concentration of aspartic acid, isoleucine, cysteine and arginine in MS medium on the growth and triptolide, wilforgine, wilforine contents of the adventitious roots. The results showed that compared with the control, supplemented with 0.25 mmol x L(-1) aspartic acid at 3rd week, the growth of the adventitious roots only accounted for 80%, but the content of triptolide of the adventitious roots and the medium was 1.36, 1.30 times, the content of wilforgine was 1.16, 1.37 times, the content of wilforine was 1.22, 1.63 times, respectively. At 3rd week 0.05 mmol x L(-1) isoleucine, the growth of adventitious roots was 97.3%, wilforgine of adventitious roots and medium 1.02, 1.27 times, wilforine 1.36 times and 1.15 times. At 1st week 0.25 mmol x L(-1) cysteine, the growth of the adventitious roots comprised 77.5% of the control, while content of triptolide of adventitious roots reached 1.87 times. At 2nd week 1.00 mmol x L(-1) cysteine, the growth of adventitious roots was 44.6% of the control, the content of wilforine in medium was 2.97 times. At 3rd week 0.50 mmol x L(-1) arginine, the growth of adventitious roots was 124.2%, the content of wilforgine and wilforine was 1.3, 1.4 times, respectively.

Topics: Amino Acids; Diterpenes; Epoxy Compounds; Lactones; Phenanthrenes; Plant Roots; Pyridines; Secondary Metabolism; Tripterygium

This paper describes how high-performance counter-current chromatography (HPCCC) was used strategically for the separation of Tripterygium wilfordii Hook. f. Due to the complexity of Chinese herbal medicines, the initial ethanol crude extract was fractionated into seven fractions using medium-pressure liquid chromatography (MPLC). One terpenoid (triptolide) and three alkaloids (peritassine A, wilforgine and wilforine) were further separated from one of the MPLC fractions. This fraction (1.25 g) yielded 8 mg of triptolide and 28 mg of peritassines A after one HPCCC column pass and 30 mg of wilforgine and 120 mg of wilforine after a second column pass with respective purities of 97%, 93.6%, 95.0% and 94.4%, which were determined by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). This was a one-step HPCCC separation, using an n-hexane-ethyl acetate-methanol-water (4:5:4:5, v/v) solvent system, where increases in theoretical plates have been sacrificed in favour of increasing throughput. Structures were identified by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS), (1)H nuclear magnetic resonance ((1)H NMR) and (13)C nuclear magnetic resonance ((13)C NMR). Comparison of three different modes of eluting compounds retained in the liquid stationary phase: elution extrusion; dual mode and simple pump-out showed that simply pumping out the column contents at high flow gave better resolution and was eight times faster than the other two well-utilised methods. Triptolide and peritassines A were isolated for the first time from Tripterygium wilfordii Hook. f.

Topics: Alkaloids; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; Countercurrent Distribution; Diterpenes; Drugs, Chinese Herbal; Epoxy Compounds; Lactones; Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Biomolecular; Phenanthrenes; Plant Extracts; Pyridines; Tripterygium