The chromatographic fingerprinting study and genotoxicity evaluation of aqueous extract from Cyclocarya paliurus leaves

Cyclocarya paliurus leaf is a medicinal and edible homologous plant, which possess various bioactive components with significant health benefits. However, the quality and safety of the aqueous extract from Cyclocarya paliurus leaves (CPLAE) vary greatly due to the raw materials and preparation technology. At present, chromatographic fingerprinting has been widely used for qualitative and quantitative analysis of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). In this study, a method combining high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) fingerprint with quantitative analysis was established and successfully applied to the characterization and quality evaluation of the CPLAE. In addition, the genetic safety of the CPLAE was evaluated by genotoxicity tests, including Ames test, chromosomal aberration test of Chinese hamster lung (CHL) cell in vitro, and bone marrow micronucleus test in mice. The results showed that 10 batches of CPLAE samples were analyzed by high performance liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS), and the similarity of chromatographic fingerprint of each batch was above 0.961, indicating good similarity. At the same time, the 6 compounds with high absorption strength in the chromatogram were quantitatively analyzed. The results showed that all 6 compounds had good regression (R2=1.000) in the test range, and the recoveries ranged from 96.25% to 102.46%. The results of the 3 genotoxicity tests showed that the highest dose of CPLAE had no genotoxicity. In conclusion, the newly established chromatographic fingerprint and multi-component quantitative analysis method is stable and accurate, and can be used for the identification and quality evaluation of the CPLAE. Moreover, the CPLAE has the characteristics of safety and high quality as functional materials in food.