ISSN print edition: 0366-6352 ISSN electronic edition: 1336-9075 Registr. No.: MK SR 9/7 Published monthly

Identification and quantification of tricin present in medicinal herbs, plant foods and by-products using UPLC-QTOF-MS

Tao Zheng, Eric Chun-Wai Wong, Grace Gar-Lee Yue, Xiao-Xiao Li, Karen Hoi-Yan Wu, David Tai-Wai Lau, Pang-Chui Shaw, Monique S. J. Simmonds, and Clara Bik-San Lau

Institute of Chinese Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong

E-mail: claralau@cuhk.edu.hk

Received: 14 January 2021  Accepted: 10 April 2021

Abstract:

Tricin, one of the flavones present in edible Poaceae species, was shown to interfere with intestinal inflammatory-related carcinogenesis and suppress metastasis in colon cancer mice models. Those botanical foods and medicinal herbs which contain high content of tricin may be considered as health supplements for colon health. Hence, the present study aimed to identify and quantify the content of tricin in various medicinal herbs, edible botanicals and some agricultural by-products by LC-MS. A list of “top 10 tricin-rich botanicals/medicinal herbs” was built. From the results, the top three high tricin content botanicals are the dried culms of Triticum aestivum (wheat straw), dried culms of Oryza sativa (rice straw) and mature fruits of Imperata cylindrica. Furthermore, a simple, straightforward isolation method has been developed to isolate tricin from wheat straw which achieved 50% isolation rate (percentage yield of 0.05% w/w) with purity of not less than 98%.

Keywords: Tricin; Natural flavone; Poaceae; Medicinal grains; Chemopreventive; Agricultural by-products

Full paper is available at www.springerlink.com.

DOI: 10.1007/s11696-021-01651-6

Chemical Papers 75 (9) 4579–4588 (2021)