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Domestication and saponins contents in a gradient of management intensity of agaves: Agave cupreata, A. inaequidens and A. hookeri in central Mexico

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Abstract

Saponins occur in numerous plants, including agaves, determining benefic and harmful properties to humans; their presence may favor using plants as soap and other products, but also they may cause caustic effects producing contact dermatitis. In domestication, favorable and unfavorable properties of saponins may cause an increase or decrease of their content, respectively. This study quantified and identified saponins among wild and managed populations of three agave species: A. cupreata Trel. et Berger, A. inaequidens Koch with wild and cultivated populations used for mescal production, and A. hookeri Jacobi, existing exclusively cultivated, used for production of the fermented beverage pulque. We studied 272 plants from 19 populations, quantifying contents of crude saponins through spectrometry. In 12 populations, the saponins types were identified by High Performance Liquid Chromatography–Mass-Spectrography-Time-of-Flight HPLC-MS-TOF. The highest crude saponins content was recorded in A. hookeri (26.09 mg/g), followed by A. cupreata (19.85 and 15.17 mg/g in wild and cultivated populations, respectively). For A. inaequidens, we recorded 14.21, 12.95, and 10.48 mg/g in wild, silvicultural managed and cultivated populations, respectively. We identified 18 saponins types, A. inaequidens showing all of them. A hecogenin glycoside (HG1) is found in high amounts in A. hookeri but in low quantities in A. inaequidens and A. cupreata. A. inaequidens had the greatest diversity of saponins. The contents of crude saponins in A. inaequidens and A. cupreata decrease with management intensity, but contrarily to what we expected, it was the highest in A. hookeri. We hypothesize that such high amount could be due to some saponins, probably HG1, may be precursors of sugars.

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Fig. 1

(Photos Ignacio Torres-García, CJ Figueredo)

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Acknowledgements

We thank people of the communities where the collections were conducted, for their kindness and disposition to collaborate in the research. We also thank the Laboratorio Nacional de Innovación Ecotecnológica para la Sustentabilidad (LANIES, IIES, UNAM), particularly Dr. Mayra Gavito, M Sc. Ana Lidia Sandoval and Dr. Francisco Espinosa for facilities in using the specialized equipment required for this study, and José Francisco Paz Guerrero for his support and assistance in the laboratory. The authors thank financial support by the National Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT, Research Project CB-2013-01-221800) and the Program of Support to Research and Technological Innovation Program (PAPIIT, UNAM, IN209214, and IN206217).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratorio de Manejo y Evolución de Recursos Genéticos, Instituto de Investigaciones en Ecosistemas y Sustentabilidad-UNAM, Morelia, Mexico

    Carmen Julia Figueredo Urbina & Alejandro Casas

  2. Laboratorio de Ecología Evolutiva de Plantas, Escuela Nacional de Estudios Superiores, Unidad Morelia, UNAM, Morelia, Mexico

    Yesenia Martínez-Díaz

  3. Escuela de Ingeniería y Ciencias, Centro de Biotecnología FEMSA, Tecnológico de Monterrey, Avenida Eugenio Garza Sada 2501 Sur, CP 64849, Monterrey, N.L., Mexico

    Liliana Santos-Zea & Janet A. Gutiérrez-Uribe

Authors
  1. Carmen Julia Figueredo Urbina
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  2. Alejandro Casas
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  3. Yesenia Martínez-Díaz
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  4. Liliana Santos-Zea
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Correspondence to Alejandro Casas.

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Electronic supplementary material

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Supplement 1

Mass spectra of the chlorogenic derivatives identified as: (A) compound 1: chlorogenin + 5Hx + Mp (m/z 1389.61); (B) compound 2: chlorogenin + 4Hx + Pn + Mp (m/z 1359.59); (C) compound 3: chlorogenin + 5H x + Mp (m/z 1389.61); (D) compound 4: chlorogenin + 4Hx + Pn + Mp (m/z 1359.59); (E) compound 5: chlorogenin + 3Hx + H + (m/z 919.46); (F) compound 12: chlorogenin + 4H x + Mp (m/z 1249.54); (G) compound 13: chlorogenin + 3Hx + Pn + Mp (m/z 1219.54); (H) compound 14: chlorogenin + 2Hx (m/z 757.42); (I) compound 15: chlorogenin + 4H x + Mp (m/z 1249.56); (J) compound 16: chlorogenin + 3Hx + Pn + Mp (m/z 1219.54). (TIFF 19454 kb)

Supplement 2

Mass spectra of the saponins other than chlorogenins identified as: (K) compound 6: tigogenin + 5Hx + Mp (m/z 1373.63); Compound (L) tigogenin + 4Hx + Pn + Mp (m/z 1343.63); (M) compound 8: hecogenin + 3Hx + 2Pn (m/z 1181.1); (N) compound 9: manganin + 4H x + Mp (m/z 1263.54); (O) compound 10: manganin + 3Hx + Pn + Mp (m/z 1233.52); (P) compound 11: hecogenin + 3Hx + Pn + Mp (m/z 1217.55); (Q) compound 17: tigogenin + 4Hx + Mp (m/z 1233.56), (R) compound 18: tigogenin + 3Hx + Mp + Pn (m/z 1203.55). (TIFF 15381 kb)

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Urbina, C.J.F., Casas, A., Martínez-Díaz, Y. et al. Domestication and saponins contents in a gradient of management intensity of agaves: Agave cupreata, A. inaequidens and A. hookeri in central Mexico. Genet Resour Crop Evol 65, 1133–1146 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10722-017-0601-6

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