Planta Med 2011; 77 - PL34
DOI: 10.1055/s-0031-1282683

NMR and MS profiling of chemosystematic markers in triploid Populus tomentosa

CL Si 1, 2, PP Qin 2, YY Lu 2, Y Zhang 2
  • 1Tianjin Key Laboratory of Pulp and Paper, Tianjin University of Science and Technology, Tianjin 300457, China
  • 2Key Laboratory of Cellulose and Lignocellulosics Chemistry, Guangzhou Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, China

Chemosystematics, or chemotaxonomy, is the attempt to classify and identify plants, according to demonstrable differences and similarities in their secondary metabolites. Thus, chemotaxonomic markers are powerful tools for the identification of a wide variety of plants [1]. Chinese forest scientists have been making significant efforts to develop fast-growing trees due to the extreme shortage of wood resources. Triploid Populus tomentosa Carr. (Salicaceae), the cloned hardware poplar species from Populus tomentosa, has been receiving the most attention [2]. However, secondary metabolites of triploid P. tomentosa have never been studied to date, though poplars have been widely used in folk medicines for the treatment of various diseases [3]. This work was carried out to investigate the secondary metabolites and the chemosystematic markers from triploid P. tomentosa. Column chromatographic purification of triploid P. tomentosa extracts resulted in the isolation of twelve phenolics: grandidentatin, isograndidentatin A, isograndidentatin B, caffeic acid, populoside A, salireposide, luteolin, salicortin, apigenin, populoside, ρ-coumaric acid, and 7-O-caffeoylsalirepin. The structures of the isolated secondary metabolites were extensively elucidated and characterized by spectroscopic method, including 1D and 2D NMR, and EI, FAB and MALDI-TOF MS. This was the first investigation of the secondary metabolites of triploid P. tomentosa wood. The isolation of isograndidentatin A, isograndidentatin B, grandidentatin, here in triploid P. tomentosa was interesting and glucosides of 1,2-dihydroxycyclohexane acylated by ρ-coumaric acid (or ρ-coumaric acid derivatives) could be considered as useful chemosystematic marks within the Salicaceae family, which was also well in accord with the our previous conclusion [4].

Acknowledgement: This work was financially supported by Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University (NCET 2010), Foundation for the Development of Science and Technology in Tianjin Universities (No. 20080616), National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC, No. 31000279) and Natural Science Foundation of Tianjin City (No. 09JCYBJC15800).

References: 1. Bohm BA (1987) The Bot Rev 53: 197–279.

2. Si CL et al. (2011) Bioresources 6: 232–242.

3. Si CL et al. (2009) Chem Nat Compd 45: 634–636.

4. Si CL et al. (2009) Biochem Syst Ecol 37: 221–224.