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. 2018 Apr 10;13(4):e0195508.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0195508. eCollection 2018.

Antioxidant capacity of phenolics in Camellia nitidissima Chi flowers and their identification by HPLC Triple TOF MS/MS

Rui Yang  1   2 , Ying Guan  3 , Weixin Wang  2 , Hongjuan Chen  4 , Zhaochun He  2 , Ai-Qun Jia  1   2
Affiliations

Antioxidant capacity of phenolics in Camellia nitidissima Chi flowers and their identification by HPLC Triple TOF MS/MS

Rui Yang et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Camellia nitidissima Chi (CNC) is a valuable medicinal and edible plant in China. In this study, CNC flowers were extracted with 95% ethanol, then partitioned into dichloromethane, ethyl acetate, n-butanol, and water fractions, with the antioxidant capacity of flavonoids and other phytochemicals in CNC flowers investigated for the first time. Results showed that the ethyl acetate fraction exhibited the strongest antioxidant capacity and highest total phenolic content (TPC) compared with the other fractions. Furthermore, in the ethyl acetate fraction, the 50% effective concentrations (EC50) of ABTS+ and DPPH radical scavenging activities were 64.24 ± 1.80 and 78.80 ± 0.34 μg/mL, respectively, and the ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) was 801.49 ± 2.30 μM FeSO4 at 1,000 μg/mL. Pearson's correlation coefficients and principal component analyses (PCA) for the TPC and antioxidant capacity of the five fractions indicated that the phenolic compounds were the major antioxidant constituents in the flowers. To exploit the antioxidants in CNC flowers, 21 phenolic compounds in the ethanolic extract fraction were identified by HPLC Triple TOF MS/MS, next, 12 flavonoids were isolated and elucidated, of which compounds 1-5 showed potent antioxidant capacity. In addition, the potential structure-activity relationship among these 12 flavonoids showed that (1) the o-catechol group in the B-ring was primarily responsible for the antioxidant capacity of flavonoids and (2) steric hindrance, produced by glycosides and other groups, could reduce the antioxidant capacity of the flavonoids.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Total phenolic content in the five fractions of C. nitidissima Chi flowers.
Each value is expressed as mean ± SD (n = 3). Different letters showed significant differences from each other.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Chemical structures of compounds 1–12.
Fig 3
Fig 3
Total ion chromatogram of the C. nitidissima Chi flowers ethanolic extract (A); HPLC chromatogram of Camellia nitidissima Chi flower ethanolic extract by 360 nm detection (B).
Fig 4
Fig 4
ABTS radical cation scavenging activity of Vc and C. nitidissima Chi flower fractions (A), compounds 1–2 (B), compounds 3–4 (C), and compounds 5–12 (D). Each value is expressed as mean ± SD (n = 3).
Fig 5
Fig 5
DPPH radical scavenging activity of Vc and C. nitidissima Chi flower fractions (A), compounds 1–2 (B), compounds 3–4 (C), and compounds 5–12 (D). Each value is expressed as mean ± SD (n = 3).
Fig 6
Fig 6
Ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) of Vc and C. nitidissima Chi flower fractions (A), compounds 1–2 (B), compounds 3–4 (C), and compounds 5–12 (D). Each value is expressed as mean ± SD (n = 3).
Fig 7
Fig 7
Principal component analysis (PCA) loading plot of total phenolic content (TPC) and antioxidant activity of the ethanolic extract (A) dichloromethane fraction (B), ethyl acetate fraction (C), n-butanol fraction (D), and water fraction (E) of C. nitidissima Chi flowers.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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