Supercritical Extraction and Identification of Bioactive Compounds in Dryopteris fragrans (L.) Schott

<b>Background:</b> This is a comparative metabolomic study of the medicinal plant <i>Dryopteris fragrans</i> (L.) Schott from the family <i>Dryopteridaceae</i> Herter (or <i>Aspidiaceae</i> Mett. ex Frank) growing under cold pole conditions in the Oymyakon region of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). <b>Methods:</b> The aerial parts of <i>D. fragrans</i> were subjected to extraction using supercritical CO₂ extraction and maceration methods. Several experimental conditions were investigated, including a pressure range of 50-300 bar and a temperature range of 31-60 °C. A 1% volume of ethanol was used as a co-solvent in the liquid phase of the extraction. <b>Results:</b> The most effective <i>D. fragrans</i> extraction conditions were 200 Bar pressure and a temperature of 55 °C. Tandem mass spectrometry was used to detect the target analytes. A total of 141 bioactive compounds (86 compounds from the polyphenol group and 55 compounds from other chemical groups) were tentatively identified in extracts of aerial parts of <i>D. fragrans</i>. Among these, thirty chemical constituents from the polyphenol group were identified for the first time. Other compound classes that were newly identified in <i>D. fragrans</i> include naphthoquinones (5,8-dihydroxy-6-methyl-2,3-dihydro-1,4-naphthoquinone, 1,8-dihydroxy-anthraquinone, 1,4,8-trihydroxyanthraquinone, chrysophanol, etc.), diterpenoids (tanshinone IIa, cryptotanshinone, isocryptotanshinone II, tanshinone IIb, etc.), polysaccharides, triterpenoids, and sesquiterpenes. <b>Conclusions:</b> These results highlight that <i>D. fragrans</i> is rich in bioactive compounds and put forward several newly detected compounds for further investigation.