Chemical characterization of Berberis vulgaris L. Var. asperma edible berries

Berberis vulgaris L. var. asperma edible fruits have been found to have activity against several microbes and to be cytotoxic in certain immortalized cancer cell lines. In this study, the berries were analyzed to find the possible metabolites that could be the curative agents. Evaluations using an LC-UV/MS technique established the presence of chlorogenic acid, rutin, and berberine in ethanolic extracts of B. vulgaris berries. The ethanolic sample was found to have 47.1 mg/kg of 3-(3,4-dihydroxycinnamoyl) quinic acid, 0.02 mg/kg of rutin and 0.36 mg/kg of berberine. The free radical scavenging activity of the mixture of polyphenolics exhibited an IC50 at 34.48 µg/mL. An assessment of zinc and iron concentration using atomic absorbance spectrophotometry (AAS) was determined to be 45.3 and 198.1 mg/kg, respectively. The investigation of the volatile constituents through solid phase microextraction (SPME) and by dichloromethane extraction was explored using a gas chromatograph equipped with a mass spectrometer (GC-EI-MS). SPME analyses showed the presence of palmitic acid (C16:0), vaccenic acid (C18:1 Δ 11 trans) and stearic acid (C18:0). Three saturated fatty acids, SFAs (C14:0, C16:0, and C18:0), two methyl esters of the SFAs (C14:0 and C16:0), and one polyunsaturated fatty acid, PUFA (C18:2 Δ 9,12 cis) were detected in the dichloromethane extracts of the berries. © 2018, Malaysian Society of Analytical Sciences. All rights reserved