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Cultivation of PA-producing plants for the isolation of standards
Project
Project code: BfR-SiN-08-1322-680
Contract period: 01.03.2017
- 31.12.2017
Purpose of research: Applied research
Pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PA) are secondary metabolic products, which are mainly formed by the plant families of the Boraginaceae, Asteraceae and Fabaceae. In high concentrations, PAs are toxic to the liver and some PAs are suspected to act as genotoxic carcinogens. Because of their harmful potential, PAs in food and feed are undesirable and the detection of high PA contents in herbal teas and teas was highly relevant for food safety. Taking into account that PA are expected to develop their toxic effects only through metabolic activation, the phase I metabolism for four structurally different PA was investigated in the 1322-634 special research project. A number of metabolic pathways suggested in the literature was confirmed, but new, previously unknown metabolites were detected. For verifying the results, it is of particular interest to have a higher number of PAs with the same structural feature. This approach would allow linking certain PA structures to specific metabolic pathways, thus allowing conclusions to be drawn about structure specific effects. Since only a certain number of PAs are available as a standard, the isolation of individual PA from PA plants is to be established. These plants are available by an external project partner. For the isolation, a method has to be developed, which allows the detection of PA of all structure types (the platynecin type will also be analysed). For the development of such methods, various modes of detection are available, such as the precursor scan or measurements by means of high-resolution mass spectrometry (VDIA mode). A prerequisite for this is knowledge about the structure specific fragmentation behavior of the respective PA ester types that is available by preliminary work. The first goal of the project is therefore the development of a detection method which allows the complete screening of PA plants, regardless of whether these are available as standard or not. The identification of all PAs produced by the plant permits targeted fractionation and targeted isolation of the compounds. In addition, data obtained will be entered into a database. This database will be used as part of a master thesis for the systematic characterization of domestic Senecio species (cooperation with the University of Giessen). For this purpose, about 400 different plants of the species Senecio Jacobaea from Schleswig-Holstein are available. This material is characterized botanically and molecular biologically at the University of Giessen and combined with the data obtained in our project. After successful identification of the PA within respective plants, the isolation of individual PA by means of preparative HPLC is carried out, followed by the application of structure-enhancing measuring modes such as high-resolution mass spectrometry in combination with the NMR. This procedure offers the possibility to isolate standards, which can then be used for further investigations and for the complete PA profile of plants.
Section overview
Subjects
- Crop Production
- Animal nutrition
- Toxicology
