.
- 1Centre for Pharmacognosy and Phytotherapy, University of London, London, UK.
Abstract
OBJECTIVES:
Preparations containing saw palmetto
berries are used in the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia
(BPH). There are many products on the market, and relatively little is
known about their chemical variability and specifically the composition
and quality of different saw palmetto
products notwithstanding that in 2000, an international consultation
paper from the major urological associations from the five continents on
treatments for BPH demanded further research on this topic. Here, we
compare two analytical approaches and characterise 57 different saw palmetto products.
METHODS:
An established method - gas chromatography - was used for the quantification of nine fatty acids, while a novel approach of metabolomic profiling
using (1) H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy was used as a
fingerprinting tool to assess the overall composition of the extracts.
KEY FINDINGS:
The
phytochemical analysis determining the fatty acids showed a high level
of heterogeneity of the different products in the total amount and of
nine single fatty acids. A robust and reproducible (1) H NMR
spectroscopy method was established, and the results showed that it was
possible to statistically differentiate between saw palmetto
products that had been extracted under different conditions but not
between products that used a similar extraction method. Principal
component analysis was able to determine those products that had
significantly different metabolites.
CONCLUSIONS:
The metabolomic approach developed offers novel opportunities for quality control along the value chain of saw palmetto
and needs to be followed further, as with this method, the complexity
of a herbal extract can be better assessed than with the analysis of a
single group of constituents.
© 2014 The Authors.
Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology published by John Wiley & Sons
Ltd on behalf of Royal Pharmaceutical Society.
KEYWORDS:
1H nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy; fatty acids; gas chromatography; metabolomics; saw palmetto
