Chemical Composition, High Performance Liquid Chromatography Fingerprint and Zebrafish Toxicity Study of <i>Cnidium officinale</i> Makino

ABSTRACT To reveal the chemical composition of Cnidium officinale Makino (COM), improve the quality control standard, and explore the related toxicity, solvent extraction, SiO 2 gel column chromatography, and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR, 1 H&amp; 13 C) technology were used to extract, isolate, and identify the structures of the secondary metabolites from COM. A total of 10 batches of COM from different origins were studied by HPLC; the data from HPLC were analyzed by chemometry. At the same time, using zebrafish as an experimental animal model, the effects of different polar chemical parts of COM on zebrafish embryo development were explored. The five compounds were identified in the experiment, namely senkyunolide A, senkyunolide H, ligustrolide I, ferulic acid, and chlorogenic acid. The fingerprint of COM was established, and 19 common peaks were identified, seven of which were characteristic peaks. Toxicity studies of zebrafish embryo development showed that the five fractions ( n ‐hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate, n ‐butanol, and water fractions) did not show significant toxicity when the dose concentration was between 0.5 and 1.5 mg/mL, but the toxicity was significant when the dose was up to 2.5 mg/mL. Zebrafish embryos showed different degrees of spinal curvature, pericardial edema, delayed yolk sac absorption, and developmental retardation. This research has preliminarily elucidated the chemical foundation of COM. It has successfully established the fingerprint‐based quality control standard for COM and put forward the safe application ranges of extracts from diverse chemical fractions. These achievements have furnished an experimental foundation for subsequent in‐depth investigations.