Background and objectives Gelsemium elegans Benth (G. elegans) is a traditional medicinal plant; however, it is highly toxic, and toxicity varies significantly between species. The cause of this difference has not been clarified. Humantenirine is an important toxic alkaloid in G. elegans, and its metabolism has been poorly studied. This study aimed to compare the different metabolites formed by human liver microsomes, pig liver microsomes, and goat liver microsomes.
Methods High-performance liquid chromatography/quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry was used to study the metabolism of humantenirine in human liver microsomes, pig liver microsomes, and goat liver microsomes.
Results A total of eight metabolites (M1-M8) were identified, and three major metabolic pathways were found: demethylation (M1), dehydrogenation (M2, M3, M7), and oxidation (M4, M5, M6, M8).
Conclusions Based on these results, it is hypothesized that demethylation is the major detoxification pathway for humantenirine, providing important information to better understand the metabolism and toxicity differences between species of G. elegans.
Acknowledgments
None.
Funding
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 31972737).
Conflict of interest
ZYL has been an editorial board member of Future Integrative Medicine since February 2023. The author declares no other con-flicts of interest.
Author contributions
Experiments conceiving and designing (ZYL), experiments per-formance (XJQ), manuscript drafting (YFW), and critically editing (MTZ, ZYL).
Data sharing statement
No additional data are available.
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