Analysis of Chemical Composition Differences in Dendrobium officinale from Different Regions Based on UPLC-QTOF-MS
Dendrobium officinale is a perennial epiphytic herbaceous plant in the Orchidaceae family, belonging to the Dendrobium genus. It has been a famous Chinese medicinal herb since ancient times and is mainly distributed in Anhui, Zhejiang, Hunan, Fujian, Guangxi, Sichuan, Yunnan and other regions. The main artificial cultivation areas of Dendrobium officinale are Yunnan, Zhejiang, Anhui, and Guangdong. Dendrobium officinale contains a variety of chemical substances, including polysaccharides, alkaloids, flavonoids, benzyl compounds, lignans, and volatile chemical components, which have extremely high medicinal value. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that Dendrobium officinale has the effects of nourishing the stomach and generating fluids, nourishing yin and clearing heat. It is used to treat symptoms such as fever and fluid damage, dry mouth and thirst, insufficient stomach yin, and dry vomiting caused by insufficient food intake. Modern pharmacological research has shown that flavonoids in Dendrobium officinale have hypoglycemic effects, while benzyl compounds and polysaccharides can have anti-inflammatory properties. Benzyl compounds, flavonoids, and phenolic compounds have antioxidant activity, benzyl compounds have anti-cancer effects, and polysaccharides can regulate the body’s immune system.
As a medicinal plant, the yield and quality of Dendrobium officinale are influenced by factors such as the original plant species, growth area, planting techniques, soil nutrients, climatic conditions, and harvesting period. The wild production of Dendrobium officinale is scarce, and the commercial Dendrobium officinale currently circulating in the market mainly comes from artificial planting bases across the country. Due to the wide distribution of planting bases, the various conditions during the growth process of Dendrobium officinale produced in different regions cannot be guaranteed to be consistent, which inevitably leads to differences in the medicinal value of Dendrobium officinale. According to the evaluation method for the quality of Dendrobium officinale in the 2020 edition of the Chinese Pharmacopoeia, the content of polysaccharides and alcohol soluble extracts is used as the standard for evaluating the quality. The polysaccharides and alcohol soluble extracts specified in the pharmacopoeia are crude extracts, and the detection methods are relatively simple, which can easily lead to significant errors. This indicates that using only the content of polysaccharides and alcohol soluble extracts as evaluation indicators for the quality of Dendrobium officinale has certain limitations. Therefore, it is imperative to select a chemical component with high content and good pharmacological activity in Dendrobium officinale for quality calibration. This experiment aims to comprehensively analyze the chemical components of Dendrobium officinale from different origins, except for polysaccharides, in order to identify the marker components for evaluating the quality of Dendrobium officinale and improve the quality evaluation standards for Dendrobium officinale.

The activity of medicinal plants is influenced by the composition and content of their secondary metabolites: on the one hand, it depends on the gene expression differences caused by the variety of medicinal plants themselves; On the other hand, agricultural climate conditions such as rainfall, temperature, humidity, and sunshine during the growth process, as well as field management, also have a significant impact on its quality. With the continuous deepening of research on medicinal plants, the system of quality evaluation of traditional Chinese medicine based on a single chemical component as an indicator has certain limitations. In addition to polysaccharides from Dendrobium officinale, there are also considerable small molecule chemical components present in Dendrobium officinale. Widely analyzing these chemical components and linking them with the quality of Dendrobium officinale medicinal materials is of great significance for identifying the relationship between growth environment and planting techniques and the quality of Dendrobium officinale. This is essential for improving the quality evaluation standards of Dendrobium officinale in the later stage.
This study explored the natural small molecule composition and content of alcohol extracts of Dendrobium officinale from different origins using UPLC-Q-TOF-MS, and further explored the quality evaluation standards of Dendrobium officinale, a commonly used traditional Chinese medicine. Qualitative analysis was conducted on the ethanol extract of Dendrobium officinale, and a total of 32 main components were identified. Chemical analysis software and local databases were used to speculate on possible structures and molecular formulas, resulting in (-) – lirioresinol B fructose-phenylalanine、 Vanillic acid, p-hydroxybenzoic acid, dendrobine and other chemical structures. Among them, 13 components were detected in the ethanol extracts of Dendrobium officinale from different origins, indicating that although the secondary metabolites produced by Dendrobium officinale are affected by different origins, their main active ingredients have a high degree of commonality. Dendrobium officinale is rich in phenolic compounds, mainly including benzyl compounds represented by dendrobine and flavonoids represented by naringenin. Correspondingly, the quantitative analysis of standard samples showed that there were differences in the content of dendrobine and naringin in Dendrobium officinale from different origins, indicating that these two compounds can serve as potential quality evaluation indicators for Dendrobium officinale.
In recent years, our research group has been focusing on the development of new ingredients and functions of Dendrobium officinale, especially its application in the field of cosmetics. Chen and Qi conducted a study on the moisturizing properties of Dendrobium officinale polysaccharides, and the results showed that Dendrobium officinale polysaccharide extracts have good moisturizing effects and can improve the tolerance of skin cells to dry environments. In addition to polysaccharides, Dendrobium officinale also contains a large amount of phenolic compounds, which are natural antioxidants that exhibit certain DPPH and ABTS free radical scavenging activities in vitro experiments. At present, Dendrobium officinale, as a high-end cosmetic ingredient, has been widely used in beauty and skincare products and is favored by consumers.
In order to clarify the possible active ingredients in the alcohol extract of Dendrobium officinale and better use it in the development of skincare products, we conducted chemical composition analysis on the alcohol extracts of Dendrobium officinale from different origins, providing a theoretical basis for the scientific and rational utilization of Dendrobium officinale.