Identification of Bioactive Pentacyclic Triterpenoids and Fatty Acid Derivatives from Cissus quadrangularis and C. rotundifolia Through Untargeted Metabolite Profiling.

Comparative metabolite profiling of crude extracts of leaf and stem of two medicinally important species of genus Cissus was performed. Gas Chromatography - Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) of methanoloic extracts of leaf and stem of Cissus rotundifolia revealed the presence of around 30 compounds, out of which 15 were identified through NIST14 library based on their mass spectral pattern. Some of the important metabolites included betulinaldehyde, methyl palmitate, β-amyrin acetate, 2-naphthol, 2-phenylethanol and myristic acid. Among these metabolites, betulinaldehyde was the most abundant compound with 36.44% relative abundance. In contrast, 36 compounds were detected in the aqueous and methanolic extracts of C. quadrangularis stem, out of which 21 compounds were identified through NIST14 library. Saturated fatty acids and ascorbic acid derivatives constitute the major fraction with 44.30% and 36.40% of the total peak area. In addition to these, coumaran, quinoline and trans-phytol were also identified in the extracts of C. quadrangularis. The comparative metabolite profiling showed higher percentage of betulinaldehyde (~ 36%) and lauric acid (19.42%) in C. rotundifolia while that of methyl palmitate (~ 0.76%) and coumaran (1.48%) in C. qudrangularis. Cissus species are medicinally known for their bone healing properties and the metabolic profiling of these herbs will further be utilised for identification and characterization of the novel bioactive compounds responsible for various medicinal properties.