Abstract
Embelia laeta (L.) Mez., Primulaceae, is mostly used by Chinese ethnic minorities. However, only little is known about its antioxidant chemical compounds that can act as tyrosinase inhibitors. We herein assessed the antioxidant activities of E. laeta through in vivo and in vitro experiments. Compounds with potential tyrosinase inhibitory activity in E. laeta were screened using bio-affinity ultrafiltration liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (UF-LC-MS) combined with molecular docking technology. Total polyphenol content and total flavonoid content in the four fractions of E. laeta were analyzed. Antioxidant experiments were performed to assess the antioxidant activities of the four fractions of E. laeta. The n-butanol fraction had the highest total polyphenol and total flavonoid and the most potent antioxidant activity. The bioactivities of compounds in the fractions were further evaluated by determining their hepatoprotective effects in mice. The results showed that n-BuOH had good antioxidant activity in vivo. The ten potential tyrosinase inhibitors in the n-BuOH fraction were identified using UF-LC-MS. Four of the inhibitors, namely, chlorogenic acid, methyl 3-O-feruloylquinate, 3-O-caffeoylquinic acid, and caffeic acid, were screened by combining molecular docking and total binding degree values. Finally, the tyrosinase inhibition rates of these ligands were also determined, and the results showed that chlorogenic acid (IC50 0.83 ± 0.09 mM) was the most potent inhibitor. These results suggested that E. laeta has excellent antioxidant activity, and UF-LC-MS could serve as a powerful tool to screen tyrosinase inhibitors from herbs.
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Funding
This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2019YFC1712302, 2019YFC1712304); Jiangxi University of Chinese Medicine Science and Technology Innovation Team Development Program (CXTD22001); Science and Technology Innovation Base Construction-Base Platform Construction-Engineering Center, Key Laboratory (20221ZDD02007); the first batch of standardization projects of Jiangxi Provincial Standards Committee of Traditional Chinese Medicine in 2021(2021A23); 2021 Jiangxi Provincial Drug Administration Scientific Research Project(30); Jiangxi University of Chinese Medicine University-Level Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Program (202210412022).
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by WTL, ZQL, and HMY. Designed the research and funding acquisition by YLF and MZH. Identification of medicinal materials by GYZ. Data processing was handled by XHZ and LXZ. The first draft of the manuscript was written by WTL, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Animal experiments were conducted according to the regulations of the Institute Animal Ethics Committee (approval number: JZLLSC20210067).
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Li, W., Li, Z., Yu, H. et al. Integration of Antioxidant Activity, Affinity Ultrafiltration, and Molecular Docking Simulations to Decipher the Tyrosinase Inhibitor of Embelia laeta. Rev. Bras. Farmacogn. 34, 481–491 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43450-023-00483-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s43450-023-00483-7