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Chemical analysis reveals the botanical origin of shatavari products and confirms the absence of alkaloid asparagamine A in Asparagus racemosus

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Abstract

Shatavari—a famous Ayurveda materia medica used mainly as a tonic for women—is distributed in health food products all over the world. The Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of India identifies the botanical origin of shatavari as the tuberous root of Asparagus racemosus. We recently investigated by DNA analysis the botanical origin of shatavari products on the Japanese market. The results suggested that their botanical origin was Asparagus; however, species identification was difficult. In this study, we analyzed steroidal saponins, including those specific to this plant, in these products and confirmed their origin as A. racemosus. Next, alkaloid analyses of an authentic A. racemosus plant and these products were performed, because several papers have reported the isolation of a pyrrolo[1,2-a]azepine alkaloid, asparagamine A, from this plant. Our results suggest that neither plant material nor products contained asparagamine A. It has been pointed out that Stemona plants are sometimes mistaken for shatavari, because their tuberous roots have a similar shape to that of A. racemosus, and pyrrolo[1,2-a]azepine alkaloids are thought to be Stemona-specific. These data strongly suggest that A. racemosus does not contain asparagamine A, and that previous isolation of asparagamine A from materials claimed as originating from A. racemosus was likely caused by misidentification of Stemona plants as A. racemosus.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Dr. A. Kanno of Tohoku University and Dr. S. Jiwajinda of Kasetsart University for providing us with authentic plants of A. racemosus and S. collinsae, respectively. This work was supported by Health and Labour Sciences Research Grants in Japan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Pharmacognosy, Phytochemistry and Narcotics, National Institute of Health Sciences, 1-18-1 Kamiyoga, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo, 158-8501, Japan

    Yukie Kumeta, Takuro Maruyama, Daigo Wakana, Hiroyuki Kamakura & Yukihiro Goda

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  1. Yukie Kumeta
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  2. Takuro Maruyama
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  3. Daigo Wakana
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  4. Hiroyuki Kamakura
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  5. Yukihiro Goda
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Correspondence to Yukihiro Goda.

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Kumeta, Y., Maruyama, T., Wakana, D. et al. Chemical analysis reveals the botanical origin of shatavari products and confirms the absence of alkaloid asparagamine A in Asparagus racemosus . J Nat Med 67, 168–173 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11418-012-0669-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11418-012-0669-4

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