Degradation Profiling of Chemical Constituents in Andrographis Herb

Abstract

A degradation profile of the Andrographis Herb under standard storage conditions (6 months), using 'H NMR-based metabolomics approach and multivariate analysis, was performed on the CHCl3- and aq MeOH-extracts from four suppliers. The metabolomics profiles in both extracts changed according to the storage time. Focusing on the active diterpene lactones, however, only CHCl3 can extract the main ingredients, among which; andrographolide, 14-deoxyandrographolide, and 14-deoxy-11,12- didehydroan-drographolide, were the indicative markers. Specifically, 14-deoxy- 11,12-didehydro-andrographolide, was the only lactone that increased consistently throughout the storage period and was identified as the major decomposition product; therefore it could be proposed as an indicator for the storage age. A stability profile on the total lactone content was performed. Total lactone contents decreased consistently, revealing a zeroth order kinetics (k = -0.2545 - -0.9002 mo1). Based on the results, crop selection for the highest lactone contents would be the most important for longer storage time of the raw materials. As for the herbal products, the results suggested that raising the labeled amount to a higher content will allow the lactone contents to remain in an acceptable range throughout the storage period. This can be in a range of 9 – 11%; therefore the products can be stored as long as 12 month after the manufacturing dates.