Comparative metabolome-based classification of Senna drugs: a prospect for phyto-equivalency of its different commercial products

Abstract

Introduction: The demand to develop efficient and reliable analytical methods for the quality control of nutraceuticals is on the rise, together with an increase in the legal requirements for safe and consistent levels of its active principles. Objective: To establish a reliable model for the quality control of widely used Senna preparations used as laxatives and assess its phyto-equivalency. Methods: A comparative metabolomics approach via NMR and MS analyses was employed for the comprehensive measurement of metabolites and analyzed using chemometrics. Results: Under optimized conditions, 30 metabolites were simultaneously identified and quantified including anthraquinones, bianthrones, acetophenones, flavonoid conjugates, naphthalenes, phenolics, and fatty acids. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to define relative metabolite differences among Senna preparations. Furthermore, quantitative 1H NMR (qHNMR) was employed to assess absolute metabolites levels in preparations. Results revealed that 6-hydroxy musizin or tinnevellin were correlated with active metabolites levels, suggesting the use of either of these naphthalene glycosides as markers for official Senna drugs authentication. Conclusion: This study provides the first comparative metabolomics approach utilizing NMR and UPLC–MS to reveal for secondary metabolite compositional differences in Senna preparations that could readily be applied as a reliable quality control model for its analysis.