Antimicrobial and Preservative Effects of Codonopsis Pilosula Extract and Identification of its Active Ingredients

Abstract

Codonopsis pilosula(C. pilosula),Astragalus membranaceus(A. membranaceus)and Angelica sinensis(A. sinensis)are three common medicinal and dietary tonifying herbs. In this research,the antimicrobial effects of their aqueous and ethanol extracts were analyzed by using the filter paper diffusion method and microdilution method.The results showed that the aqueous extracts of these three medicinal herbs had no significant inhibitory effect on the growth of four common food-contaminated microorganisms:Escherichia coli(E. coli),Staphylococcus aureus(S.aureus),Candida albicans(C. albicans)and Saccharomyces cerevisiae(S.cerevisiae). Only the C.pilosula ethanol extract(denoted as CEE)could significantly inhibit the growth of S.aureus. The antimicrobial and preservative effects of CEE were investigated by using carrot juice as a model. It was found that CEE exhibited significant synergistic antimicrobial and preservative effects with the chemical preservative benzoic acid. When benzoic acid was reduced to half of its conventional food preservative dosage,the combined addition could completely inhibit the growth of S. aureus within 6 d. CEE was further analyzed by highperformance liquid chromatography(HPLC)and primary mass spectrometry(MS1),and lobetyolin was preliminarily identified as the main active ingredient. The minimum inhibitory concentration(MIC)of lobetyolin was determined to be 40 μg/mL when used alone. The cell counting kit-8(CCK-8)assay showed that both CEE and lobetyolin exhibited low cytotoxicity on human normal liver QSG-7701 cells at the preservative dosage,suggesting promising potential for developing safe and effective food preservatives from traditional Chinese medicinal herbs.

Keywords

Codonopsis pilosula(C. pilosula) / ethanol extract / antimicrobial effect / bio-preservative / lobetyolin

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Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China(32171958)

Transformation Project of Scientific and Technological Achievements of Qinghai Province, China(2023-NK-101)

Natural Science Foundation of Shanghai, China(22ZR1400900)