Abstract
Some species of the Gentianaceae family are a valuable source of secondary metabolites. However, the phytochemical knowledge of some of these species remains insufficient. Therefore, this work focused on the isolation of the two main secondary metabolites in the methanolic extract from a Gentiana capitata cell suspension using preparative HPLC and the determination of their structure using UHPLC-DAD-IT-MS/MS and NMR methods. Their content in the methanolic extract was quantified using a previously validated HPLC method. The toxicity of the extract and two isolated compounds was also tested on the PC-12 cell line. The structures of the main secondary metabolites were identified as isosaponarin and 3,7,8-Trimethoxy-9-oxo-9H-xanthen-1-yl 6-O-β-D-ribopyranosyl-β-D-allopyranoside by comparing the UHPLC-DAD-IT-MS/MS and NMR results with the literature data. The content of isosaponarin was determined to be 0.76 ± 0.04%, and the content of 3,7,8-trimethoxy-9-oxo-9H-xanthen-1-yl 6-O-β-D-ribopyranosyl-β-D-allopyranoside was found to be 0.31 ± 0.02% in the dry extract. Additionally, a two-fold increase in the viability of the PC-12 cell line was observed compared to the control after treatment with the methanolic extract at a concentration of 500 µg/mL. These results suggest the potential use of G. capitata cell suspension methanolic extract as a new source of isosaponarin and 3,7,8-trimethoxy-9-oxo-9H-xanthen-1-yl 6-O-β-D-ribopyranosyl-β-D-allopyranoside, highlighting their lack of toxicity to the PC-12 (rat pheochromocytoma) cell line.