Optimizing Processing Technology of Cornus officinalis: Based on Anti-Fibrotic Activity

Abstract

Cornus officinalis, a kind of edible herbal medicine, has been widely used in the protection of liver and kidney due to its medicinal and nutritional effect. Its anti-inflammatory, anti-tumor, and anti-oxidant activities can be enhanced by wine-steamed (WS) processing. Based on the activations of hepatic stellate cells-T6 (HSC-T6) and HK-2, our study used single-factor plus orthogonal design to investigate the anti-fibrosis of C. officinalis processed with steamed (S), high-pressure steamed (HPS), WS, high-pressure wine-steamed (HPWS), wine-dipped (WD), and wine-fried (WF). The chemical constituents in processed C. officinalis with higher anti-fibrotic activities were detected by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled with hybrid triple quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC-Q-TOF-MS/MS). Results showed that C. officinalis with HPWS significantly inhibited the activations of HSC-T6 and HK-2. Moreover, compounds in C. officinalis with HPWS were obtained via UHPLC-Q-TOF-MS/MS, indicating that 27 components were changed compared with raw C. officinalis. These results demonstrated that HPWS is the optimal processing technology for anti-fibrosis of C. officinalis.

Keywords: Cornus officinalis; composition difference; fibrosis; processing technology; wine steamed.

Figure 1

Pharmacodynamic evaluation of C. officinalis. The cytotoxicity of C. officinalis on HSC-T6 and HK2 cells for 24 (A), 48 (B), and 72 h (C). HSC-T6 and HK2 cells were activated by TGF-β with different concentrations (D) and for different times (E). (F) The effects of C. officinalis on activated HSC-T6and HK2 cells. Data are represented as means ± SEM. *p ≤ 0.05, **p ≤ 0.01, and ***p ≤ 0.001 vs. the control group; ^#p ≤ 0.05, ^#p ≤ 0.01, and ^###p ≤ 0.001 vs. the TGF-β group.

Figure 2

Effects of processed C. officinalis on anti-fibrosis changes with univariate elements. Anti-fibrosis activities of the C. officinalis samples steamed at different times (A), different temperatures (B), braised at different times (C), and with different rice wine dosages (w/w) (D). Data are represented as means ± SEM. ***p ≤ 0.001 vs. the control group. ^###p < 0.01 vs. the TGF-β group.

Figure 3

Optimization of the processing technology with orthogonal test. Anti-fibrosis activities of the C. officinalis samples processed with HPS (A), WS (B), and HPWS (C) technologies. Data are represented as means ± SEM. **p ≤ 0.01 and ***p ≤ 0.001 vs. the control group. ^#p < 0.05, ^##p < 0.01, and ^###p < 0.01 vs. the TGF-β group.

Figure 4

Validation of processed C. officinalis in terms of anti-fibrosis activity. The anti-fibrosis activities of all processed C. officinalis samples were detected by Western blot analysis (A); the effects of immunofluorescent staining of α-SMA in HSC-T6 treated with C. officinalis processed with HPWS present in 400 × magnification (B). Data are represented as means ± SEM. *p ≤ 0.05, **p ≤ 0.01, and ***p ≤ 0.001 vs. the control group. ^#p < 0.05, ^##p < 0.01, and ^###p < 0.01 vs. the TGF-β group.

Figure 5

Ingredient identification of C. officinalis processed with HPWS. (A) Raw sample positive and negative ion pattern diagram. (B) The product's positive and negative ion pattern is illustrated. (C) PLS-DA score plot.