Summary:
Medicinal plants constitute an unfailing source of compounds (natural products
– NPs) utilised in medicine for the prevention and treatment of various
deceases. The introduction of new technologies and methods in the field of
natural products chemistry enabled the development of high throughput
methodologies for the chemical composition determination of plant extracts,
evaluation of their properties and the exploration of their potentials as drug
candidates. Lately, metabolomics, an integrated approach incorporating the
advantages of modern analytical technologies and the power of bioinformatics
has been proven an efficient tool in systems biology. In particular, the
application of metabolomics for the discovery of new bioactive compounds
constitutes an emerging field in natural products chemistry.
In this context, Acronychia genus of Rutaceae family was selected based on its
well-known traditional use as antimicrobial, antipyretic, antispasmodic and
anti-inflammatory therapeutic agent. Modern chromatographic, spectrometric and
spectroscopic methods were utilised for the exploration of their metabolite
content following three basic axis: a) phytochemical investigation,
identification of secondary metabolites and evaluation of their biological
properties, b) development of analytical methods for identification of
acetophenones (chemotaxonomic markers of the genus) and dereplication
strategies for the chemical characterisation of extracts and c) application of
metabolomic methodologies (LC-MS & NMR) for comparative analysis (between
different species, origins, organs), chemotaxonomic studies (between species)
and compound-activity correlations. Bioinformatics and sophisticated
statistical tools were employed especially towards the latter methodology.
Keywords:
Acronychia, Acetophenones, Mass spectrometry, Metabolomics, Dereplication