
In this study, molecular networking and biological experiments were
combined to discover the potential bioactive components of C. setosum.
Compared with traditional isolation and activity assessment, this
approach could accomplish the rapid discovery of bioactive compounds
from complex mixtures.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Chemicals and materials
Analytical grade methyl alcohol and anhydrous alcohol, 1,1-
diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), as well as Vatimin C were pur-
chased from Sinopharm (Shanghai, China). 2,2
′
-Azinobis-(3-ethyl-
benzthiazoline-6-sulphonate) (ABTS) was obtained from Sigma
(Shanghai, China). The
α
-glucosidase was purchased from Yuanye
(Shanghai, China). Acarbose and p-Nitrophenyl-
α
-D-glucopyranoside
(pNPG) were obtained from Aladdin (Shanghai, China).
2.2. Plant materials
The C.setosum was gathered in Weifang, Shandong Province, China
in May 2022, and identified by Prof. Jianqing Yu (School of Pharma-
ceutical Sciences, Wuhan University). The specimen (No. CS20220503)
was stored at School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Wuhan University,
China.
2.3. Extracts preparation
The C. setosum (700 g) was suspended with 80% ethanol (5 L) and
was subjected to ultrasonic extraction (SB-5200D, Ningbo Scientz
Biotechnology Co. Ltd.) (frequency 60 KHz, power 500 W, temperature
30 ◦C, time 30 min) for three times to give a crude residue (TE-SO, 168
g), which was suspended in water and successively partitioned with
petroleum ether (PE), dichloromethane (DCM), ethyl acetate (EA) and n-
butanol (n-BuOH) to obtain a PE-soluble extract (PE-SO, 27.0 g), a DCM-
souble extract (DE-SO, 4.2 g), an EA-soluble extract (EE-SO, 4.0 g), an n-
BuOH-soluble extract (BE-SO, 13.3 g) and a remainder of water fraction
(WE-SO, 119.5 g), respectively.
2.4. UHPLC-Q-orbitrap analysis
A UHPLC-Q-Orbitrap HRMS (Q Exactive, Thermo Fisher) and an
Aglient Eclipse XDB-C18 (5
μ
m, 4.6 ×150 mm) were used for MS2
analysis. In both positive and negative ion modes, a HESI source was
applied in this study. The samples dissolved in methanol (2 mg/mL)
were ltered through a 0.22
μ
m membrane lter and then injected with
2
μ
L. The mobile phases consisted of 0.1% formic acid in H
2
O (A) and
0.1% formic acid in acetonitrile (B), and were conducted as the
following gradients: 0–40 min from 5% to 100% B; 40–44 min 100% B;
44–46 min from 100% to 5% B; 46–50 min 5% B. The ow rate was 400
μ
L/min, and the column temperature was 35 ◦C. This analysis was
conducted as the following parameters: Spray voltage, 3.8 kV; auxiliary
gas ow rate (arb), 10 L/min; auxiliary gas heater temperature, 350 ◦C;
sheath gas ow rate, 40 L/min; capillary temperature, 320 ◦C; acquisi-
tion time, 0–50 min; mass acquisition range, m/z 150–2000. The reso-
lution was 7.0 ×10
4
and 1.75 ×10
4
FWHM in full and secondary scan
mode, respectively.
2.5. Molecular networking design
The raw mass data were rstly cnonverted to mzML by MSCon-
vertGUI and then were processed with MS-DIAL. The processed mass
data (MGF le) comprised the precursor masses and MS/MS informa-
tion, which was further used for molecular networking analysis
(Tsugawa et al., 2015). For more details about the MS-DIAL parameters,
see Supplementary Material (Table S1). Two output les were further
submitted to FBMN to create the molecular networking on GNPS plat-
form (http://gnps.ucsd.edu) and the chemical components were auto-
matically matched with GNPS library. Furthermore, the resultant
molecular networking was enhanced with MolNetEnhancer to improve
the chemical structural classication. The output les were visualized by
the Cytoscape software. All the GNPS job links were provided in Sup-
plementary Material.
2.6. Assay of contents of total avonoid and total phenol
The content determination of total avonoid in various extracts was
conducted as the method (Yusoff et al., 2023). First, the methanolic 5%
aluminium chloride and 1 mg/mL of extracts were prepared. Then, 0.5
mL extract was mixed with 2 mL 5% aluminium chloride, and then they
were diluted to 10 mL. After a 15-min incubation, the absorbances at
425 nm were measured. Rutin (0–50
μ
g/mL) was utilized to construct
the standard curve. Methanol served as the blank solution. The total
avonoid content expressed in milligrams of rutin equivalent (RE) per
gram of dry weight extract.
The total phenol content of different extracts was measured by Folin-
Ciocalteu assay (Yusoff et al., 2023). First, 25% sodium carbonate so-
lution and the extracts (1 mg/mL) were prepared. Then, 0.2 mL of ex-
tracts were mixed with 0.2 mL of Folin-Ciocalteu phenol solution. After
shaking, 2.4 mL of 25% sodium carbonate and 2.2 mL distilled water
were added. The absorbance at 760 nm was measured after a 30-min
incubation in the dark at room temperature. Methanol was used as
blank and gallic acid (0–20
μ
g/mL) was used for the calibration curve.
The total phenol content expressed in milligrams of gallic acid equiva-
lents (GAE) per gram of dry weight extract.
2.7. Biological assays
2.7.1. DPPH free radical scavenging assay
The DPPH free radical scavenging assay was conducted according to
the method (Kalaivani &Mathew, 2010). The samples and DPPH were
both dissolved in anhydrous ethanol, respectively. Then, they were
mixed in a 96-well plate and reacted. Anhydrous ethanol and vitamin C
were blank and positive control, respectively. Absorbance at 517 nm
was recorded after 30 min at dark room temperature.
2.7.2. ABTS free radical scavenging assay
The ABTS free radical scavenging experiment was performed as the
description (Feng et al., 2023). The commixture of 7.4 mM ABTS (5 mL)
and 2.6 mM potassium persulfate (88
μ
L) were stored for 18 h at dark
room temperature. The ABTS radical cation stock solution was diluted
with anhydrous ethanol until the absorbance of 0.70 ±0.02 at 734 nm.
Then, the sample solution (10
μ
L) was mixed with 90
μ
L of ABTS
working solution and reacted at dark room temperature for 20 min.
Vitamin C and anhydrous ethanol were performed as positive and blank
control, respectively. Finally, the absorbance at 734 nm was recorded.
2.7.3.
α
-Glucosidase inhibition assay
The
α
-glucosidase inhibition activity was analyzed according to the
description (Yu et al., 2023). Specically, 50
μ
L of extract and 50
μ
L of
α
-glucosidase (0.8 U/mL, dissolved in phosphate-buffered saline) were
mixed and incubated at 37 ◦C for 10 min. Then, 50
μ
LpNPG solution (5
mM) was added to each well and incubated at 37 ◦C for 10 min. Acar-
bose was a positive control, and the absorbance at 405 nm was
measured. The inhibition percentage was obtained by Eq. (1):
Inhibition rate (%) = 100 ×(1−Aa−Ab
Ac−Ad)(1)
where A
a
, A
b
, A
c
and A
d
were the absorbance of sample, blank sample,
control, and blank control, respectively.
W. Zhou et al. Food Bioscience 61 (2024) 104774
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