Biosynthesis-Based Quantitative Analysis of 151 Secondary Metabolites of Licorice To Differentiate Medicinal Glycyrrhiza Species and Their Hybrids
Abstract
Secondary metabolites are usually the bioactive components of medicinal plants. The difference in the secondary metabolisms of closely related plant species and their hybrids has rarely been addressed. In this study, we conducted a holistic secondary metabolomics analysis of three medicinal Glycyrrhiza species (G. uralensis, G. glabra, and G. inflata), which are used as the popular herbal medicine licorice. The Glycyrrhiza species (genotype) for 95 batches of samples were identified by DNA barcodes of the internal transcribed spacer and trnV-ndhC regions, and the chemotypes were revealed by LC/UV- or LC/MS/MS-based quantitative analysis of 151 bioactive secondary metabolites, including 17 flavonoid glycosides, 24 saponins, and 110 free phenolic compounds. These compounds represented key products in the biosynthetic pathways of licorice. For the 76 homozygous samples, the three Glycyrrhiza species showed significant biosynthetic preferences, especially in coumarins, chalcones, isoflavanes, and flavonols. In total, 27 species-specific chemical markers were discovered. The 19 hybrid samples indicated that hybridization could remarkably alter the chemical composition and that the male parent contributed more to the offspring than the female parent did. This is hitherto the largest-scale targeted secondary metabolomics study of medicinal plants and the first report on uniparental inheritance in plant secondary metabolism. The results are valuable for biosynthesis, inheritance, and…
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Licochalcone A and glabridin were indicated as specific metabolites of G. inflata and G. glabra, respectively.
“The metabolites licochalcone A and glabridin, which are discussed more in the next paragraphs, were indicated as specific metabolites of G. inflata, and G. glabra, respectively [20,25].”
From Licorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra, G. uralensis, and G. inflata) and Their Constituents as Active Cosmeceutical Ingredients (2022) · cites this paper as [20]
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Cerulli, A., Masullo, M., Montoro, P., & Piacente, S. (2022) · Cosmetics · doi:10.3390/cosmetics9010007 · Cited by 83 · see citing works
- Authors
- Song, W., Qiao, X., Chen, K., Wang, Y., Ji, S., Feng, J., Li, K., Lin, Y., & Ye, M.
- Affiliations
- Peking University (CN)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- State Key Laboratory of Natural and Biomimetic Drugs, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Peking University, 38 Xueyuan Road, Beijing 100191, China
- Corresponding author
- Ye, Min
- Venue
- Analytical Chemistry
- Publisher
- American Chemical Society (ACS)
- Published
- 2017-02-23
- Volume
- 89
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 3146-3153
- ISSN
- 0003-2700 (ISSN-L)
- 1520-6882
- OpenAlex
- W2588052175
- Cited by
- 156
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 10 · 2025: 24 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 15 · 2022: 24 · 2021: 21 · 2020: 19 · 2019: 12 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 8
- FWCI
- 14.53
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Analytical Chemistry (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China (81222054, 81470172)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics › Pharmacology › Pharmacological Effects of Natural Compounds
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Complementary and alternative medicine › Traditional Chinese Medicine Analysis
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Plant biochemistry and biosynthesis
- Keywords
- licorice, Glycyrrhiza uralensis, Glycyrrhiza inflata, secondary metabolites, chemotypes, plant hybrids, uniparental inheritance, flavonoid glycosides, saponins, phenolic compounds, coumarins, chalcones, flavonols, DNA barcoding, medicinal plant quality control
- MeSH terms
- Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid, Flavonoids, Genotype, Glycosides, Glycyrrhiza, Phenols, Plants, Medicinal, Saponins, Spectrophotometry, Ultraviolet, Principal Component Analysis, Tandem Mass Spectrometry, Metabolomics, DNA Barcoding, Taxonomic
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