Radix Scutellariae

Liu, Wei, Wang, Huilin, Zhu, Bo, Yin, Chengqian, Chen, Shuyang, Li, Jin, Azietaku, John Teye, An, Mingrui, Gao, Xiu-mei & Chang, Yan-xu, 2017, An activity-integrated strategy of the identification, screening and determination of potential neuraminidase inhibitors from Radix Scutellariae, PLoS ONE (e 0175751) 12 (5), pp. 1-19 : 13

Hierarchical cluster analysis of the different types of Radix Scutellariae by 26 NA inhibitory activity compounds

Hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) is defined as a statistical method to analyze and cluster data by measuring the similarity in samples. HCA is preferential to cluster objects with highest similarities into one group. HCA was also applied to distinguish the different HM samples [ 25]. The 18 RS samples were assayed with HCA according their concentration of 26 compounds screened with UPLC/Q-TOF-MS-FC ( Fig 3 ) HCA dendrogram ( Fig 7 ) showed that 18 RS samples were classified into 4 groups based on concentration and NA inhibitory bioactivity of each sample ( Fig 3 , Table 6). The first group (group I) contains the most biennially cultivated RS, including S10, S14, S9, S1, S11, S2, and S12. Moreover, the second group (group II) contains the perennially (3 years or more) cultivated RS, inducing S3, S8, S6, S7, S4, S5 and S13. This result demonstrated that component concentration and NA inhibitory bioactivity in RS extract were distinct between biennially cultivated and the perennially (3 years or more) cultivated RS. Group III consisted of the three wild RS (S15, S16 and S17) samples. It implied that the effects of wildness on RS contents correlated with the age of RS. The sample S18, from plateau Area, was clustered into group IV individually. These results suggest that high altitude climate may have a special role on the chemical contents of RS. From HCA methods, it was indicated that the influence of origins on the quality of RS was more than that of cultivated time.

Figures

Fig 3. Chromatogram of activity-integrated fingerprints of RS extracts. Chromatography (A) and total ion chromatography (B) of 26 compounds with NA inhibitory activity. Colored bar means the fraction collection purity> 98%. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0175751.g003

Fig 7. HCA dendrogram of 18 RS samples based on the NA inhibitory activity of compounds. Biennially cultivated RS (Group 1), perennially cultivated RS (Group 2), wild RS (Group 3) and plateau area RS (Group 4). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0175751.g007