Chemical profiling and anticoagulant activity of Ginkgo Biloba leaves under the influence of harvesting time

Abstract

Gingko biloba, family Gink, is used as a source of food and in traditional medicine for treatment of cough and promoting blood circulation, etc. The aim of the present work is to determine the chemical variation of G. biloba leaves collected from different harvesting time and in vitro anti-platelet aggregation effects, respectively. Methanol extract of G. biloba leaves was subjected to ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole time of flight mass spectrometry analysis and triple quadrupole mass spectrometry. The anti-platelet aggregation effects induced by platelet-activating factor (PAF) and adenosine diphosphate (ADP) was measured by Born’s method. UHPLC-QTOF-MS analysis confirmed the presence of flavonoids, phenolic acid and terpene lactones in different sample. Partial least square discriminant analysis based on chemical profiling conducted to differentiate the samples according to their harvest time. All samples found highly effective against PAF-induced platelet aggregation with IC₅₀ of 98.87 μg/mL (summer sample) and 51.55 μg/mL (autumn sample). However, on ADP-induced platelet aggregation, IC50 of these samples were greater than 200 μg/mL. Both total contents of flavonoids and terpene lactones in autumn sample were greater than that in summer sample. Qualitative and quantitative analysis showed that the distribution of chemicals was variation in different harvesting time.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords:

• Anticoagulant activity
• Ginkgo biloba leaves
• harvesting time
• UHPLC-MS/MS

Abbreviations

ADP	=	Adenosine diphosphate
BSA	=	bovine serum albumin
DMSO	=	dimethylsulfoxide
IC50	=	half-maximal inhibition concentrations
LOD	=	limit of detection
LOQ	=	limit of quantitation
MRM	=	multiple reaction monitoring
PAF	=	platelet-activating factor
PLS-DA	=	Partial least square discriminant analysis
PRP	=	Platelet-rich plasma
PPP	=	platelet-poor plasma
QQQ-MS	=	triple quadrupole mass spectrometry
QTOF-MS	=	quadrupole time of flight mass spectrometry
UHPLC	=	ultra-high performance liquid chromatography
VIP	=	Variable importance plot.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the research foundation of the Science and Technology Research Program of Chongqing Municipal Education Commission [Grant No. KJQN201800123].