Cogent™ Columns —Discovering the Active Ingredients in Traditional Medicines

We received a tree bark sample (Brownea grandiceps) from the jungles of Brazil. They say that a tea brewed from the bark has medicinal properties, and we hoped to find out more about which compounds were responsible. If you can determine which one has the medicinal effects, you could make a pharmaceutical formulation of that compound or even improve upon its properties using a superior derivative. A good example is salicylic acid, a natural compound found in some types of tree bark. It has good analgesic properties but also a number of side effects. This has led to the development of acetylsalicylic acid, also known as aspirin. Our research here could lead to a similar useful drug if the active ingredients are determined.

                The first thing we did was prepare the tea the same way the Amazonian natives do. We took two pieces of bark and put them in boiling water for five minutes. After filtering, the samples were ready for the LC-MS. Next we used both the Diamond Hydride™ and the Bidentate C18™ columns to cover the whole range of polarity in the sample. In the LC-MS data, we identified various compounds present in the bark extract. These compounds included rutin, quercetin, isoquercetin, 6‐beta‐O‐2',3'‐dihydrocinamonyl‐12‐hydroxy‐(13)‐15‐en‐16,12‐olide‐18‐cassaneoic acid, camptothecin, and 9-methyoxy CTP. With further study, one of these compounds could be identified as being responsible for the medicinal properties of the Brownea grandiceps bark extract. Camptothecin for instance has been shown to have anti-cancer properties.

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