Abstract
There has been no chemical analysis of the fruit of medicinal plant Jatropha podagrica until now. The current study aimed to qualitatively and quantitatively analyze the J. podagrica fruit using a high-resolution LC-MS strategy, i.e., library-comparison ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-Quadrupole-Orbitrap-tandem mass spectrometry. The strategy putatively identified 46 compounds from fresh fruit. During the putative identification, 10 isomers (e.g., (vitexin vs. isovitexin) were completely distinguished from each other. Thereafter, all 46 compounds were simultaneously quantified using authentic standard comparison method. Finally, they were also subjected to the 2,2'-azino bis (3-ethylbenzothiazolin-6-sulfonic acid radical (ABTS(+•))-scavenging assay to characterize their relative antioxidant capacities. Their antioxidant capacities were thus multiplied by chemical contents to calculate their antioxidant contribution values, respectively. Corilagin, gallic acid, ellagic acid, and phillygenin exhibited the highest antioxidant contribution percentages and thereby were suggested as the four top antioxidant contributors. The four are recommended to build up a quality-markers (Q-markers) system of J. podagrica fruits. All these findings can help to develop J. podagrica fruits as a potential resource of natural medicine.