Chemical and morphological differentiation between Euonymus japonica and E. fortunei var. Radicans

Branches of the tree which belongs to the genus Euonymus have been used as a Korean folk medicine for the jaundice, lumbago and uterine diseases. Although a crude drug related to this folk medicine is sold in traditional herbal market, the botanical origin of this drug has not been pharmacognostically confirmed yet. In this study, the anatomical characteristics and chemical profiles of the stem of Euonymus species growing in Korea, i.e. Euonymus japonica and E. fortunei var. radicans were studied to clarify the botanical origin of this crude drug. As a result, the two Euonymus species could be discriminated by the internal morphological criteria such as the thickness of cuticles, the number of collenchyma cell layers, and the frequency of druse and resinous substance. Meanwhile, HPLC-DAD analysis on the 70% ethanolic extracts of two species showed significantly different HPLC profiles each other. The molecular ions of three characteristic peaks shown in the chromatogram of two species were identified with ESI-MS, and their structures were estimated to be flavonol glycosides by their UV spectra and MS/MS data. According to these internal morphological criteria and HPLC profile data, the commercial folk medicine elucidated as the stem of E. japonica. Acknowledgements: This research was financially supported by the Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy (MOTIE), Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology (KIAT) through the Inter-ER Cooperation Projects (Grant # A004500005)