Structural elucidation of in vitro metabolites of bavachinin in rat liver microsomes by LC-ESI-MSⁿ and chemical synthesis

Abstract

1. Bavachinin isolated from Psoralea corylifolia has various activities, such as antimicrobial, antiallergic, antitumor and so on. Our previous study showed that natural bavachinin exhibits peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ-agonist activity.

2. In vitro studies on bavachinin metabolism were conducted using rat liver microsomes incubated at 37 °C for 60 min.

3. Structures of eight metabolites of the incubation mixtures were cautiously characterized using electrospray tandem mass spectra and three synthetic compounds. The results indicated that eight metabolites of bavachinin were biotransformed mainly through oxidation.

4. The metabolic pathways of bavachinin were elucidated in vitro. These results contribute to the understanding of bavachinin’s in vivo metabolism.

• Bavachinin
• chemical synthesis
• in vitro metabolism
• mass spectrometry
• rat liver microsomes

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Prof. Wang Chang Hong (Shanghai R&D Center for Standardization of Traditional Chinese Medicines) for the gift of liver microsomes.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest.

This study was supported by a grant of Natural Science Foundation of Shanghai (13ZR1441700).