Biotransformation and metabolic profile of buddleoside with human intestinal microflora by ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography coupled to hybrid linear ion trap/orbitrap mass spectrometer

Buddleoside (also known as linarin) as the major flavonoid in Chrysanthemum morifolium Ramat., has been reported to possess a wide range of pharmacological activities. The human intestinal microbiota might have an important impact on drug metabolism and ultimately on the drug oral bioavailability. However, the interaction of the buddleoside with human intestinal bacteria remains unknown. In this study, the conversion of buddleoside by different bacteria from human feces was firstly investigated. A reliable, sensitive and rapid analytical method, ultra performance liquid chromatography was established and successfully applied to investigate the metabolites and metabolic profile of buddleoside by human intestinal bacteria. Among the isolated bacteria, four strains including Escherichia sp. 4, Escherichia sp. 34, Enterococcus sp. 45 and Bacillus sp. 46 showed more powerful conversion capability. Based on the accurate mass data and the characteristic MS(n) product ions, the parent and six metabolites were detected and tentatively identified compared with blank samples. The metabolites were produced by four main metabolic pathways including deglycosylation, acetylation, methylation and hydroxylation. Buddleoside could be firstly converted to its aglycon acacetin (M2) by the majority of the isolated intestinal bacteria. Subsequently, M2 was further metabolize to its methylated (M3), acetylated (M4), hydroxylated (M5) and hydrogenated product (M6). However, acacetin-7-glucosid (M1) was obtained only from the minor bacterial samples like Bacillus sp. 46. To further explain the metabolism of buddleoside, the β-d-glucosidase and α-l-rhamnosidase activities of four strains were analyzed. Bacillus sp. 46 could only produce α-l-rhamnosidase, while the other three strains showed two kinds of enzyme activities. Furthermore, the activities of α-l-rhamnosidase and β-d-glucosidase reached the highest level at 12-18h and 10-12h, respectively. The metabolic routes and metabolites of buddleoside produced by human intestinal microflora were firstly reported in this paper. The results will be very helpful for the further investigation of the pharmacokinetic research of buddleoside and to unravel how it works in vivo.