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Differentiation of Ficus deltoidea varieties and chemical marker determination by UHPLC-TOFMS metabolomics for establishing quality control criteria of this popular Malaysian medicinal herb

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Abstract

Background

Ficus deltoidea Jack (Moraceae) is a plant used in Malaysia for various diseases including as a supplement in diabetes management. Morphology distinction of the 7 main varieties (var. angustifolia, var. bilobata, var. deltoidea, var. intermedia, var. kunstleri, var. motleyana and var. trengganuensis) is challenging due to the extreme leaf heterophylly and unclear varietal boundaries, making it difficult for quality control of F. deltoidea products.

Objective

We aimed to compare the phytochemical composition of 7 varieties growing in different conditions at various geographical locations. We also aimed to establish the quality control markers for the authentication of these varieties.

Methods

We applied untargeted UHPLC-TOFMS metabolomics to discriminate 100 leaf samples of F. deltoidea collected from 6 locations in Malaysia. A genetic analysis on 21 leaf samples was also performed to validate the chemotaxonomy differentiation.

Results

The PCA and HCA analysis revealed the existence of 3 chemotypes based on the differentiation in the flavonoid content. The PLS-DA analysis identified 15 glycosylated flavone markers together with 1 furanocoumarin. These markers were always consistent for the respective varieties, regardless of the geographical locations and growing conditions. The chemotaxonomy differentiation was in agreement with the DNA sequencing. In particular, var. bilobata accession which showed divergent morphology was also differentiated by the chemical fingerprints and genotype.

Conclusion

Chemotype differentiation based on the flavonoid fingerprints along with the proposed markers provide a powerful identification tool to complement morphology and genetic analyses for the quality control of raw materials and products from F. deltoidea.

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Data availability

Metabolomics data were deposited into the EMBL-EBI MetaboLights database with identifier Number MTBLS756. The complete dataset can be accessed here https://www.ebi.ac.uk/metabolights/MTBLS756.

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Acknowledgements

AA and JLW acknowledged the Ministry of Health, Malaysia, for funding AA`s postgraduate studies at the Pharmaceutical Science, University of Geneva through the In Service Training and Educational Fellowship for Ph.D. All authors would like to acknowledge the Ministry of Agricultural Malaysia for providing the financial support through NKEA Agriculture EPP #1 (NRGS), Project no. NH0513D018 (File No. 100-RMI/MOA 16/6/2 (2/2013)). NK acknowledged University Teknologi MARA for postgraduate scholarship.

Funding

The funders had no role in study design, data collection, data analysis, manuscript preparation and decision to publish.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, EPGL, University of Geneva, University of Lausanne, Rue Michel-Servet 1, 1206, Geneva, Switzerland

    Adlin Afzan & Jean-Luc Wolfender

  2. Phytochemistry Unit, Herbal Medicine Research Center, Institute for Medical Research, Jalan Pahang, 50588, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

    Adlin Afzan

  3. Atta-ur-Rahman Institute for Natural Products Discovery, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Kampus Puncak Alam, 42300, Selangor, Malaysia

    Noraini Kasim & Nor Hadiani Ismail

  4. Faculty of Bioresources and Food Industry, Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin, Besut Campus, 22200, Besut, Terengganu, Malaysia

    Norfaizura Azmi, Abdul Manaf Ali & Nashriyah Mat

  5. Institute of Agropolis, Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin, Campus Besut, 22200, Besut, Terengganu, Malaysia

    Abdul Manaf Ali

  6. Natural Medicine Center, Universiti Islam, Cyberjaya, 63000, Cyberjaya, Selangor, Malaysia

    Abdul Manaf Ali

Authors
  1. Adlin Afzan
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  2. Noraini Kasim
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  3. Nor Hadiani Ismail
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  4. Norfaizura Azmi
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  7. Jean-Luc Wolfender
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Contributions

AA, JLW, NHI, NM and AMA conceived and designed research. NM performed variety identification based on morphology. AA and NK conducted experiments for MS metabolomics study. NA performed experiments for phylogenetic study. AA and JLW analyzed major parts of the multivariate data analysis. AA and NK contributed on the markers identification. AA, JLW, NHI, NA, NM and AMA wrote and contributed to the development of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Jean-Luc Wolfender.

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Afzan, A., Kasim, N., Ismail, N.H. et al. Differentiation of Ficus deltoidea varieties and chemical marker determination by UHPLC-TOFMS metabolomics for establishing quality control criteria of this popular Malaysian medicinal herb. Metabolomics 15, 35 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11306-019-1489-2

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