Vegetos

Abstract

Current study is aimed to classify Hovenia dulcis chemotaxonomically and to compare the alcohol decomposition activity in different coun-tries of origin at molecular level.

Compounds 1, 2, and 3 were isolated from Korean Hovenia dulcis and compounds 4 and 5 were isolated from Chinese Hovenia dulcis. The 34 samples were classified into two groups using a developed UPLC-DAD method according to the marker compounds 1, 3, 4, and 5. The cur-rent use of UPLC-DAD analysis for the fruit of Hovenia dulcis is novel. Results of the quantita-tive analysis showed a different pattern of Korean and Chinese Hovenia dulcis. The Hovenia dulcis of Korean origin contained compound 1 (0.0869% ±0.0702), 3 (0.0023%±0.0009), and 4 (0.0247% ±0.0091), while 5 was not detected. The Hoveniadulcis of Chinese origin contained compound 4 (0.0311%±0.0255) and 5 (0.0030%±0.0003). An assay using alcohol and aldehyde dehydrogenas-es was performed on compound 1 and 4, which were the main compounds contained in the Hovenia dulcis of Korean and Chinese origin, re-spectively. The activity of alcohol dehydrogenase showed a higher level with compound 4 than 1, whereas the activity of aldehyde dehydrogenase showed a higher level with compound 1 than 4.

This study suggests a method to distin-guish Hovenia dulcis types by using UPLC-DAD. This study classifies and compares Hovenia dulcis from two different origins at the molecular level.