Ecdysteroids in Native Trees and Callus Cultures of the Genus Vitex L. of the Flora of Russia and Vietnam.

Abstract

Introduction: Vitex L. is a large genus of tropical and subtropical trees used in medicine of many nations. Some species are used in gynecology due to flavonoids, iridoids, and diterpenes. Other species were shown to contain ecdysteroids and are used as tonic remedies.

Objective: This study aimed to investigate content and patterns of distribution of ecdysteroids in native trees and their accumulation in in vitro cell cultures as potential biotechnological agents of Vitex species growing in remote flora of Russia and Vietnam.

Methodology: Targeted UPLC-MS/MS was used for the quantitation of the ecdysteroids in samples of plants and callus cultures of Vitex species. Determination of nucleotide sequences was carried out on ABI PRISM 3730xl sequencer. Phylogenetic tree was constructed using Mega v.7.0.

Results: Samples of Vitex agnus-castus L. from Russian Black Sea coast of the Caucasus, as well as samples of nine species of Vitex from Vietnam were collected for ecdysteroids quantification. Relationships between the content of ecdysteroids and the systematic position of the Vitex species were shown.

Conclusions: Higher levels of ecdysteroids were revealed in different plant parts of Vitex canescens Kurz, Vitex pinnata L., Vitex quinata (Lour.) F.N.Williams, and Vitex tripinnata (Lour.) Merr. It has been established that species rich in ecdysteroids, as well as those containing trace amount of ecdysteroids (V. agnus-castus L., Vitex negundo L., and Vitex rotundifolia L.f.) are grouped in certain clades isolated from each other on the molecular phylogenetic tree of the genus. The most promising raw materials are the young leaves of V. tripinnata (8562 μg/g of dry biomass), as well as the bark of V. canescens (16,520 μg/g) and V. quinata (19,130 μg/g). The bark of V. canescens could be a good source of turkesterone (11α-oxyecdysteroid) that has pronounced pharmacological effects. Its content reaches up to 1400 μg/g in the bark. Discovering ability of callus cultures for synthesis of ecdysteroids allows us to outline experimental ways to increase the level of ecdysteroid biosynthesis in biotechnological systems as alternative source of ecdysteroids.