• Food Science and Biotechnology
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.424-430
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• 2006

Low molecular weight polyphenols were isolated from hot water extracts of radiata pine (Pinus radiata) bark using a Sephadex LH-20 column and characterized by $^1H$ and $^{13}C$ NMR, UV, FT-IR, and GC-MS analyses. Major compounds isolated and identified were protocatechuic acid, trans-taxifolin, and quercetin. Trans-taxifolin, an important intermediate in biosynthetic route of proanthocyanidin (PA), was isolated in large quantities and indicates that PA is a major component of radiata pine bark. Small amounts of polyphenols were identified by GC-MS analysis. The presence of p-hydroxybenzoic acid, vanillic acid, protocatechuic acid, cis- and trans-feruic acid, p-coumaric acid, trans-caffeic acid, (-)-epicatechin, (+)-catechin, trans- and cis-taxifolin, (+)-gallocatechin, and quercetin was confirmed by comparison of mass fragmentation patterns and retention times (RT) with authentic samples. In addition, the presence of astringenin, astringenin glycoside, trans- and cis-leucodelphinidin was strongly assumed from characteristic mass fragment ions due to their conjugated structure and retro Diels-Alder reaction, and also from biosynthetic route of PA. GC-MS analysis allowed us to detect small amounts of phenolic acids and flavonoids and eventually discriminate trans- and cis-configuration in the identified polyphenols.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.34.1-34.9
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• 2018

Cirsium japonicum belongs to the Asteraceae or Compositae family and is a medicinal plant in Asia that has a variety of effects, including tumour inhibition, improved immunity with flavones, and antidiabetic and hepatoprotective effects. Silymarin is synthesized by 4-coumaroyl-CoA via both the flavonoid and phenylpropanoid pathways to produce the immediate precursors taxifolin and coniferyl alcohol. Then, the oxidative radicalization of taxifolin and coniferyl alcohol produces silymarin. We identified the expression of genes related to the synthesis of silymarin in C. japonicum in three different tissues, namely, flowers, leaves, and roots, through RNA sequencing. We obtained 51,133 unigenes from transcriptome sequencing by de novo assembly using Trinity v2.1.1, TransDecoder v2.0.1, and CD-HIT v4.6 software. The differentially expressed gene analysis revealed that the expression of genes related to the flavonoid pathway was higher in the flowers, whereas the phenylpropanoid pathway was more highly expressed in the roots. In this study, we established a global transcriptome dataset for C. japonicum. The data shall not only be useful to focus more deeply on the genes related to product medicinal metabolite including flavolignan but also to study the functional genomics for genetic engineering of C. japonicum.