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BIAs are a class of tyrosine-derived nitrogenous secondary metabolites with over 2,500 known structures [ 13] . The core chemical structure of BIAs consist of a benzene ring, a pyridine ring, and a second aromatic ring ( Fig. 2) [ 14] . Like other plant-derived alkaloids, most BIAs are significantly bioactive [ 15] . Typical pharmacologically significant BIAs include morphine and codeine with analgesic traits, sanguinarine and berberine with antimicrobial properties, as well as noscapine, papaverine, and tubocurarine with antitussive, vasodilative, and muscle relaxant properties, respectively. The occurrence of BIAs in plants is restricted primarily in the order Ranunculales and eumagnoliids. However, their accumulation has been detected in other families, including Rutaceae, Lauraceae, Cornaceae, and Nelumbonaceae.
The lotus plant richly accumulate BIAs in almost all its organs [ 11] . To date, at least 61 alkaloids ( Table 1) have been identified in lotus since the first isolation of nuciferine, roemerine, and O-nornuciferine alkaloids from the plant in the 1960s [ 16, 17] . Notably, all reported lotus alkaloids are BIAs except Oleracein E and Methylcorypalline, which contain only basic isoquinoline structures. Based on their structures, these BIAs can further be divided into three subclasses, including 1-benzylisoquinolines, aporphines, and bisbenzylisoquinolines ( Figs 2− 4). 1-Benzylisoquinoline alkaloids are basically intermediates in the biosynthesis of aporphines and bisbenzylisoquinolines, and are mostly accumulated in trace amounts in lotus tissues [ 18] . In contrast, aporphines and bisbenzylisoquinolines are the end BIA products in lotus, with their accumulation levels accounting for over 95% of the total BIA content [ 11] .
Table 1. BIAs detected in the lotus ( Nelumbo nucifera) tissues. Alkaloids are assigned with numbers as shown in Figures 2– 5.
No. Alkaloid Formula Enantiomer Organ Reference 1-BENZYLISOQUINOLINE 1 Lotusine C 19H 24NO 3 + E, S, F [ 25] 2 Methyl lotusine L 3 Armepavine C 19H 23NO 3 (−)-R and (+)-S S, F, L [ 21] 4 Coclaurine C 17H 19NO 3 (+)-R S, L [ 26] 5 N-norarmepavine C 18H 21NO 3 (+)-R L [ 27] 6 N-methylisococlaurine C 18H 21NO 3 L [ 16, 28] 7 N-methylcoclaurine C 18H 21NO 3 (−)-R L, S [ 16] 8 Isococlaurine C 19H 24NO 3+ L 9 Methylhigenamine S [ 17] 10 Norcoclaurine-6- O-glucoside S 11 Norcoclaurine C 16H 17NO 3 (+)-R and (+)-S S, L [ 26, 29] 12 Argemexirine S, L 13 6-demethy-4-methyl- N-methylcoclaurine C 18H 21NO 3 S [ 30] 14 Nor- O-methylarmepavine C 20H 25NO 3 S [ 30] 15 4’- N-methylcoclaurine C 19H 23NO 3 L, S [ 17] 16 4’-methyl coclaurine L, S [ 17] 17 Bromo methyl armepavine L, S [ 17] 18 Methoxymethy lisoquinoline L, S [ 17] 19 Higenamine P [ 31, 32] 20 Higenamine glucoside P [ 33] APORPHINE 21 Nuciferine C 19H 21NO 2 (−)-R S, F, L [ 34, 35] 22 N-nornuciferine C 18H 19NO 2 (−)-R S, L [ 26] 23 Roemerine C 18H 17NO 2 (−)-R S, F, L [ 16, 26, 32] 24 O-nornuciferine C 18H 19NO 2 (−)-R S, F, L [ 32, 36] 25 Anonaine C 17H 15NO 2 (−)-R S, L [ 16, 26] 26 Lirinidine C 18H 19NO 2 (−)-R S, L [ 37] 27 Nuciferine- N-Methanol F 28 Nuciferine- N-Acetyl F 29 Anonaine- N-Acetyl F 30 Caaverine C 17H 17NO 2 (−)-R S, L [ 20, 38] 31 Oxidation-nuciferine S, L, F [ 19, 30] 32 Asimilobine C 17H 17NO 2 (−)-R S, F, L [ 17, 20] 33 Methyl asimilobine S, L [ 17] 34 N-methyl asimilobine S, L [ 16, 39] 35 Roemerine- N-oxide S, L [ 16, 40] 36 N-methyl asimilobine- N-oxide S, L, F [ 16, 19] 37 Nuciferine- N-oxide S, L, F [ 16, 19] 38 Dehydroanonaine C 17H 13NO 2 L [ 16] 39 Dehydronuciferine C 19H 19NO 2 L [ 16] 40 Dehydroaporphine C 18H 15NO 2 L [ 41] 41 Nelumnucine S, L 42 Dehydroroemerine L [ 16] 43 Liriodenine C 17H 9NO 3 L [ 16, 40] 44 7-hydroxydehy dronuciferine C 19H 19NO 3 L [ 16] 45 Pronuciferine C 19H 21NO 3 (+)-R and (−)-S S, F, L [ 16, 26, 40] 46 Glaziovine S 47 Lysicamine C 18H 13NO 3 L [ 38, 42] 48 Cepharadione L [ 38] BISBENZYLISOQUINOLINE 49 Neferine C 38H 44N 2O 6 1R, 1'S S, F, E [ 17, 31] 50 Liensinine C 37H 42N 2O 6 1R, 1'R S, F, E [ 35] 51 Isoliensinine 1R, 1'S S, F, E [ 25] 52 N-norisoliensinine C 36H 40N 2O 6 S, F, E [ 25] 53 6-hydroxynorisoliensinine C 36H 40N 2O 6 S, F, E 54 Methyl neferine S, E [ 10, 17] 55 Nelumboferine C 36H 40N 2O 6 S, E [ 10, 17] 56 Negferine C 38H 44N 2O 6 L [ 17, 26] 57 Nelumborine F [ 17] 58 Dauricine S, F [ 43] TRIBENZYLISOQUINOLINE 59 Neoliensinine C 63H 70N 3O 10 1R, 1'S, 1''R E [ 44] L, Leaf; E, embryo; F, flowers; S, seeds; R, rhizome; LS: leaf sap; NS, not specified. Unlike BIAs in the Ranunculales, lotus BIAs exhibit several unique features. Firstly, lotus BIAs show strict tissue specific accumulation patterns. Although BIAs are found in all the plant tissues, highest levels of approximately 3,000 μg/g fresh weight (FW) are accumulated in the laminae and plumules, followed by petals and petioles with about 500 and 100–200 μg/g FW, respectively. Conversely, lowest BIAs levels (less than 20 μg/g FW) occur in the rhizomes and stamens. Interestingly, the lotus bleeding sap contains extremely high BIAs level of up to 10,000 μg/g FW [ 11] . In addition, lotus leaves and petals predominantly accumulate aporphine BIAs, including nuciferine, O-nornuciferine, N-nornuciferine, roemerine, and anonaine, while the plumules mostly contain bis-BIAs of liensinine, isoliensinine, and neferine [ 11] . Secondly, while BIAs prevalently assume the ( S)-enantiomer conformation, lotus show enrichment of both ( R)- and ( S)-conformers. For example, both ( R)- and ( S)-stereoisomers of armepavine have been isolated from sacred lotus [ 19− 21] . To date, most aporphines isolated from lotus belong to the ( R)-configurations ( Table 1). Thirdly, all aporphine BIAs isolated from lotus lack the hydroxyl and methyl modifications at the C-3' and C-4' positions, suggesting that the ( R)- N-methylcoclaurine might be the key precursor for both aporphine and bis-BIA biosynthesis in lotus [ 22] .
Lotus cultivars exhibit considerably diverse patterns of BIA composition and accumulation. Generally, seed cultivars accumulate the highest concentration of BIAs in leaves, followed by flower cultivars, while lowest levels are observed in the rhizome cultivars [ 11, 23] . Multivariate principal component analysis (PCA) of 92 lotus cultivars showed that the seed cultivars generally accumulate high levels of nuciferine and O-nornuciferine, whereas flower cultivars primarily accumulate high N-nornuciferine, roemerine, and anonaine alkaloids [ 23] . In contrast, rhizome cultivars contain no dominant BIAs. Cluster analysis of the 92 cultivars also indicated that the American cultivar ‘Meizhouhuanglian’ could group with other Asian lotus cultivars, which suggested the lack of obvious differentiation between the American and the Asian lotus accessions based on BIA content and composition [ 23] . Developmentally, the lowest BIAs levels are accumulated in the lotus leaves at the bud stages (developmental stage S1). BIAs levels then increase steadily in the leaf growth and expansion stages, peak at S6 stage, then decrease slightly at the S7 senescence stage ( Fig. 5a) [ 11] . Accumulation of BIAs in the lotus plumules is also developmentally regulated [ 24] . Major BIAs were almost undetectable in the plumules at 12 days post pollination (DAP), which later increased consistently until 21 DAP ( Fig. 5b).
Figure 5.
BIA profiles in the leaf and plumule during development. (a) Lotus leaves showing the seven defined developmental stages. (b) BIA profiles in the seven leaf developmental stages. (c) Lotus plumules showing different developmental stages. (d) BIA content in the plumule at different developmental stages. S, leaf developmental stages; DAP, days post pollination. The figure is modified from previous reports [ 11, 24] .
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Extraction of alkaloids from raw materials is the first analytical step in their identification, quantification, and application. Currently, three main alkaloid extraction methods with varied principles are widely used, including solvent extraction, distillation, expeller pressing and sublimation methods. Solvent extraction is presently the most popularly used method. The plant alkaloids occur mostly as salts of organic and inorganic acids [ 45, 46] , thus, acidic and basic solvents are initially required to remove the non-alkaloid compounds. Subsequently, appropriate purification methods, primarily acidic extraction is performed by mixing the ground sample materials with weak acid solutions (e.g., acetic acid in water, methanol, or ethanol), to obtain a desired level of purity. The solvent extraction is carried out in four steps: 1) assimilation of solvents into the target solid matrix; 2) alkaloid dissolution in solvents; 3) solvent diffusion out of a solid matrix; 4) collection of extracted solutes [ 47] . Theoretically, any factors that enhance the above steps can facilitate alkaloid extraction. Key factors that affect the extraction efficiency, include alkaloids-solvent solubility, sample particle size, solvent to solid ratio, extraction temperature, and extraction duration [ 48, 49] .
The lotus BIAs are weak alkalescent compounds, with poor solubility or insolubility in water, but with rapid solubility in organic solvents. Based on the law of similarity and intermiscibility (like dissolves like), crude lotus BIAs extract are usually prepared in alcohol solvents (ethanol or methanol) [ 10, 19] . Other solvents, such as hydrochloric acid, dichloromethane and trichloromethane have also been used for lotus BIA extraction [ 20] . The solvent extraction efficiency can be enhanced by finely grinding the lotus tissues, solvent refluxing, microwaving, and sonication. A recent comparative study, using three extraction solvent (methanol, 50% methanol, and water) and two different extraction conditions (reflux for 120 min twice or sonication for 30 min twice), suggested that the 'reflux in methanol' method could result in highest BIA recovery from lotus flowers ( Table 2) [ 50] . Moreover, pre-basifying lotus leaves with 10% ammonia water revealed a significant two-fold nuciferine yield relative to that obtained from non-basified leaves [ 51] .
Table 2. Extraction efficiency of alkaloids from lotus flower.
Extraction method Content (mg/g dry weight) a Total 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Methanol, reflux 1.76 (100) 1.75 (100) 0.07 (100) 0.63 (100) 0.69 (100) 0.83 (100) 1.45 (100) 5.73 (100) 1.30 (100) 0.75 (100) 14.96 (100) 50% Methanol, reflux 1.09 (62) 1.35 (77) 0.05 (71) 0.50 (79) 0.61 (88) 0.78 (94) 1.35 (93) 3.79 (66) 0.94 (73) 0.56 (75) 11.02 (74) H 2O, reflux 0.24 (14) 0.35 (20) nd. b 0.21 (33) 0.18 (26) 0.38 (45) 0.78 (54) 2.57 (45) 0.66 (51) 0.29 (38) 5.66 (38) Methanol, sonication 0.88 (50) 1.11 (64) 0.03 (44) 0.39 (62) 0.33 (48) 0.47 (56) 0.97 (67) 2.77 (48) 0.70 (54) 0.42 (56) 8.07 (54) 50% Methanol, sonication 0.98 (56) 1.27 (73) 0.04 (58) 0.49 (78) 0.47 (69) 0.80 (96) 1.38 (95) 3.93 (69) 0.97 (75) 0.59 (79) 10.92 (73) H 2O, sonication 0.14 (8) 0.21 (12) nd. 0.12 (20) 0.08 (11) 0.25 (30) 0.53 (37) 1.91 (33) 0.48 (37) 0.19 (26) 3.91 (26) 1. nuciferine; 2. N-nornuciferine; 3. N-methylasimilobine; 4. Asimilobine; 5. Pronuciferine; 6. Armepavine; 7. norarmepavine; 8. N-methylcoclaurine; 9. coclaurine; 10. Norjuziphine. a. relative value (%) against the content obtained by methanol under reflux is given in parentheses. b. less than the quantitation limit. The conventional solvent extraction method is typically time consuming, requires large volume of organic solvents, and high cost waste solvent treatment. Consequently, modern or greener extraction methods, such as supercritical fluid extraction (SFC), high-speed counter-current chromatography (HSCCC), and microwave assisted extraction (MAE) techniques have been developed and applied in BIAs extraction. SFE utilizes supercritical fluid as the extraction solvent, which has high solubility as liquid and high diffusivity as gas. SFE is almost pollution-free, and can efficiently extract alkaloids with no residual organic solvents [ 52] . The solvating properties of supercritical fluid can dramatically rise when the pressure and temperature are near their critical points. The supercritical carbon dioxide (S-CO 2) is one of the most widely used supercritical fluids due to its low critical temperature (31 °C), low cost, non-toxicity, chemical inertness, and non-flammability properties [ 46, 53− 54] . However, due to the relatively low polarity of S-CO 2, polar agents, such as methanol and water are used as modifiers to raise its polarity and enhance its efficiency for BIAs extraction from lotus tissues. A previous study showed that the highest nuciferine yield of 325.54 μg/g could be achieved with extraction conditions set at 70 °C, 30 MPa, flow rate 0.2 ml/min, 2 h extraction time, and with 10% (v/v) diethylamine and 1% (v/v) water in methanol as the polarity modifier [ 51] .
The HSCCC is a liquid-liquid partition chromatography technique that uses no solid support matrix. This method permits the introduction of crude samples directly into the hollow column, and eliminates the adsorbing effects on stationary phase material as well as artifact formation, thus offering maximum sample recovery capacity and a wide range of solvent system selection [ 55] . Ma et al. used a simple two-phase solvent system comprising of n-hexane-ethyl acetate-methanol-acetonitrile-water (5:3:3:2.5:5, v/v/v/v/v) to successfully purify four main aporphine alkaloids, including 2-hydroxy-1-methoxyaporphine, pronuciferine, nuciferine, and roemerine from a crude extract of lotus leaves [ 56] .
In addition to the above-mentioned methods, several other extraction methods, such as maceration, percolation, soxhlet, and pressurized liquid extraction are available for selection. Modern and green methods are preferred mostly due to their energy-efficiency, speed, and less solvent requirement, and high extraction yield. However, traditional techniques are still widely used at the industrial level due to their low investment cost. Overall, the selection of suitable extraction techniques depends not only on the physical, chemical, and stability of the target alkaloids, but also on time and cost of the extraction methods.
Separation, identification, and quantification
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Following extraction, the resulting crude BIA extracts are mixtures of a variety of natural products, such as phenolics, carotenes, glycosides, and terpenes, which require further separation and purification. The separation of BIAs depends largely on their physical and chemical characteristics, such as adsorption properties, partition coefficients, molecular sizes, solubility, and ionic strengths [ 47] . BIAs are mostly water-insoluble but soluble in organic solvents, while their acid salts are water-soluble or soluble in dilute acids, thus, these compounds can be precipitated by adding solvents (e.g., sodium bicarbonate, ammonia, or tartaric acid) that alter the reaction pH levels. Similar theory has been used to develop pH-zone-refining counter current chromatography techniques for lotus BIAs isolation [ 35, 57] .
Isolation of pure lotus BIAs using conventional methods, such as column chromatography and thin-layer chromatography (TLC) is extremely difficult due to their high structural similarity. The structurally similar BIAs can instead be rapidly separated by counter-current chromatography (CCC) according to their different partition coefficients in two immiscible solvents. The CCC is a liquid-liquid partition chromatography technique with no solid support matrixes, and has been widely used for the preparative isolation of lotus BIAs. Accurate selection of the solvent system is highly crucial when using the CCC method. Generally, the two-phase solvent system should have: no decomposition or denaturation effects on the target compounds, sufficient sample solubility and suitable partition coefficient values, and satisfactory retention capacity of the stationary phase [ 58] . For efficient separation, the partition coefficient ( K) value of the target alkaloids and the separation factor between two BIAs ( K2/ K1) should be close to 1 and greater than 1.5, respectively [ 55] . Other factors, such as the rotary speed, the mobile phase flow rate, and the column temperature also affect the target alkaloid separation.
Preparative separation of liensinine and its analogues from lotus plumules using CCC was first reported by Wu et al. [ 59] . The authors used two-phase solvent systems of light petroleum (b.p. 60–90 °C)–ethyl acetate–tetrachloromethane–chloroform–methanol–water (1:1:4:4:6:2, v/v) and ethyl acetate–tetrachloromethane–methanol–water (1:6:4:1, v/v) ( Table 3) to successfully isolate bis-BIAs from lotus plumules in small- and large-scale, respectively. To limit the application of deleterious tetrachloromethane and chloroform solvents, another simplified HSCCC solvent system of n-hexane–ethyl acetate–methanol–water (5:8:4:5, v/v, containing 0.5% NH 4OH) was developed and successfully used to separate liensinine, isoliensinine, and neferine from crude lotus extract [ 60] . Later, several pH-zone-refining CCC solvent systems, which generally use 10 mM triethylamine in the upper organic phase and 5 mM HCl in the aqueous phase for adjustment of pH and K values of target compounds were developed [ 35, 57, 61, 62] . These two phase solvent systems were used to successfully isolate over 98% pure BIA singletons from both plumules and leaves. Other than the CCC technique, a preparative liquid chromatography has also been developed for high purity laboratory-scale isolation of liensinine, isoliensinine, and neferine [ 63] .
Table 3. Major two-phase solvent systems developed for preparative separation of lotus BIAs through counter-current chromatography (CCC) techniques.
Solvent systems Mix ratios (v/v) Target BIAs Reference Light petroleum (60–90 °C)–ethyl acetate–tetrachloromethane–chloroform–methanol–water 1:1:4:4:6:2 Small scale
Plumule BIAs[ 59] Ethyl acetate–tetrachloromethane–chloroform–methanol–water 1:6:4:1 Small scale
Plumule BIAs[ 59] n-hexane–ethyl acetate–methanol–water 5:8:4:5
0.5% NH 4OHPlumule BIAs [ 60] n-hexane–ethyl acetate–methanol–water 5:5:2:8
10 mM triethylamine
5 mM HClPlumule BIAs [ 57] Diethyl ether – Na 2HPO 4/NaH 2PO 4 (pH = 7.2 – 7.5) 1:1 Plumule BIAs [ 62] Petroleum ether (60–90 °C)–ethyl acetate–methanol–water 5:5:2:8
10 mM triethylamine
5 mM HClLeaf BIAs [ 61] n-hexane-ethyl acetate-methanol-water-[C 4mim][PF 6] 5:2:2:8:0.1
10 mM triethylamine
3 mM HClWhole plant BIAs [ 35] After extraction and purification, lotus BIAs are subjected to further identification and quantification processes. High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) techniques, particularly the reversed-phase LC methods, were predominantly employed [ 45] . Identification of known BIA compounds is normally accomplished by HPLC separation and UV detection, followed by electrospray ionization (ESI), and tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS). The reversed-phase C 18 columns are most ideal, and the application of aqueous acetonitrile containing 0.1% triethylamine as mobile phase has been shown to effectively separate both lotus leaf and plumule BIAs with strong peak signals and fine peak shapes [ 23, 63, 64] . Other optimized HPLC parameters for lotus BIAs characterization include: column temperature 30 ◦C; 270–280 nm UV/photodiode array (DAD) detection wavelength; the gradient elution mode, 40%–80% acetonitrile at 0–15 min, 80% acetonitrile at 15–18 min, 80%–40% acetonitrile at 18–19 min, 40% acetonitrile at 19–25 min; and a flow rate 0.8 ml/min. The MS detection of lotus BIAs are preferably conducted in the positive mode, with cone voltage of 20 V and a nebulizer gas temperature/pressure of 150 °C/21 psi. The needle, shield, and capillary voltage parameters are normally used with default settings. Such HPLC-DAD-ESI-MS/MS methods have been used to identify the major leaf BIAs, including nuciferine, N-nornuciferine, O-nornuciferine, anonaine, and roemerine, as well as plumule BIAs, such as liensine, isoliensinine, and neferine ( Table 4; Fig. 6; Fig. 7).
Table 4. Identification of major lotus leaf and plumule alkaloids and their HPLC-MS/MS ion characteristics.
Peaks T R a (min) Molecular weight m/ z
[M + H] +Major fragment ions Alkaloids 1* 7.56 281 282 251/219 N-nornuciferine 2* 9.03 281 282 265/250 O-nornuciferine 3* 10.17 265 266 249/219 Anonaine 4* 12.43 295 296 265/250 Nuciferine 5* 13.39 279 280 249 Roemerine 6 ∆ 6.61 610 611 503/283/206 Liensinine 7 ∆ 9.47 610 611 489/297/192 Isoliensinine 8 ∆ 17.72 624 625 503/297/206 Neferine * The retention time (T R a (min) of peaks 1–5 as obtained by Chen et al. [ 23] .
∆ The retention time of peaks 6–9 as reported by Chen et al. [ 63] .Figure 6.
Analytical mass spectra of lotus leaf BIAs and their fragmentation pathways. The chemical structures and the corresponding peak numbers 1 to 5 represent signals for N-nornuciferine, O-nornuciferine, anonaine, nuciferine, and Roemerine, respectively. Figures are modified from Luo et al. [ 65 ] and Chen et al. [ 23 ].
Figure 7.
Analytical mass spectra of lotus leaf BIAs and their fragmentation pathways. The chemical structures and the corresponding peak numbers 6 to 8 represent signals for liensinine, isoliensinine, and neferine, respectively. Figures are modified from Chen et al. [ 64 ], Deng et al. [ 11 ], and Lai et al. [ 66 ].
Currently, lotus BIAs are predominantly identified using the ultra-performance liquid chromatography technique equipped with quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-QTof-MS). In contrast to traditional HPLC-MS methods, the UPLC-Q-Tof-MS technique exhibits higher sensitivity and resolution, and mass measurement accuracy, making it a powerful and reliable analytical technique for plant metabolite identification [ 65, 66] . Under optimized UPLC-Q-Tof-MS conditions, over 20 BIAs were identified from lotus leaves and plumules, based on their chromatographic characteristics, UV spectra, exact mass, and MS fragments [ 31, 65, 67] . Moreover, these studies further verified previous observations that liensinine, isoliensinine, neferine, and lotusine are the major BIAs in lotus plumules, while those of aporphines, including nuciferine, roemerine, Anonaine, N- and O-nornuciferine are the major BIAs in lotus leaves.
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The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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About this article
Cite this article
Wei X, Zhang M, Yang M, Ogutu C, Li J, et al. 2024. Lotus ( Nelumbo nucifera) benzylisoquinoline alkaloids: advances in chemical profiling, extraction methods, pharmacological activities, and biosynthetic elucidation. Vegetable Research 4: e005 doi: 10.48130/vegres-0024-0004
Lotus ( Nelumbo nucifera) benzylisoquinoline alkaloids: advances in chemical profiling, extraction methods, pharmacological activities, and biosynthetic elucidation
- Received: 23 November 2023
- Accepted: 09 January 2024
- Published online: 05 February 2024
Abstract: As a member of the only two species in the Nelumbonaceae family, lotus ( Nelumbo nucifera) accumulates abundant benzylisoquinoline alkaloids (BIAs) in almost all of its tissues. Evidence from both traditional and modern medicine suggest great potential of the lotus BIAs in developing novel drugs for the prevention and treatment of diverse life-threatening diseases. This review provides a comprehensive summary on the up-to-date advances in the chemical profiling, extraction methods, pharmacological activities, and biosynthesis of lotus BIAs. Currently, a total of 59 BIAs structurally belonging to the 1-benzylisoquinoline, aporphine, and bis-BIA categories have been identified in various lotus tissues, with their predominant accumulation in the leaf and plumule. In contrast to the common S-conformers in Ranunculales, most lotus BIAs are R-conformers. Solvent extraction is still the most widely used BIA extraction method in lotus at the industrial level, however, numerous greener and highly advanced extraction techniques have also been developed. High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) followed by electrospray ionization (ESI) and tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) techniques are currently the most commonly used methods for separation, quantification, and characterization of lotus BIAs. Moreover, the pharmacological activities of major BIAs isolated from lotus leaves and plumules are discussed, and their biosynthetic pathways proposed based on recent functional characterization studies of lotus BIA biosynthetic genes. Finally, a summary discussion is provided on the future research trajectories in elucidating lotus BIA biosynthesis, storage, and transportation, as well as their potential application in clinical drug development.
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Key words:
- Lotus /
- Benzylisoquinoline alkaloid /
- Extraction /
- Pharmacological activity /
- Biosynthesis