NMR-based metabolomics to identify bioactive compounds in herbs and fruits

Abstract

Inflammation is an immune reaction of the body to the external stimuli such as toxins or pathogens, and is characterized by redness, swelling, pain, and heat. The process of inflammation is regulated by several pro-inflammatory and antiinflammatory cytokines. Tumor necrosis factor-_ (TNF-_) is a major pro-inflammatory cytokine involved in the inflammatory response.Elevated TNF-_ expression has been found to be associated with the development of diabetes, atherosclerosis, septic shock, and tumorigenesis. Thus inhibition of TNF-_ at any step of inflammatory pathways provides an attractive treatment for inflammatory diseases as well as for series of other common diseases.Plants provide an alternative sources of medicines used traditionally by people worldwide since thousands of years ago. The aim of this thesis was to develop methods for the rapid identification of active compounds in plant extracts by correlating NMR metabolomics and bioassay results by means of multivariate data analysis. This work demonstrates the great potential of NMR spectroscopy in combination with chemometrics for the screening of large set of crude extracts, to study the effects of different variables on the activity, and identifying sets of active compounds in complex mixtures like plant extracts.