Affiliations 

  • 1 Laboratory of Natural Products, Institute of Bioscience, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Malaysia. sitinazirahismail12@yahoo.com
  • 2 Laboratory of Natural Products, Institute of Bioscience, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Malaysia. dieni_maulydia@yahoo.com
  • 3 Laboratory of Natural Products, Institute of Bioscience, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Malaysia. tayyabakhtar@hotmail.com
  • 4 Laboratory of Natural Products, Institute of Bioscience, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Malaysia. faridah_abas@upm.edu.my
  • 5 Laboratory of Natural Products, Institute of Bioscience, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Malaysia. safinar@upm.edu.my
  • 6 Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Kuliyyah of Pharmacy, International Islamic University Malaysia (Kuantan Campus), Bandar Indera Mahkota, 25200 Kuantan, Malaysia. alfikhatib@iium.edu.my
  • 7 Forest Research Institute Malaysia, 52109 Kepong, Malaysia. norazah@frim.gov.my
  • 8 Laboratory of Natural Products, Institute of Bioscience, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Malaysia. khozirah@yahoo.com.my
Molecules, 2017 Sep 25;22(10).
PMID: 28946701 DOI: 10.3390/molecules22101612

Abstract

Gaharu (agarwood, Aquilaria malaccensis Lamk.) is a valuable tropical rainforest product traded internationally for its distinctive fragrance. It is not only popular as incense and in perfumery, but also favored in traditional medicine due to its sedative, carminative, cardioprotective and analgesic effects. The current study addresses the chemical differences and similarities between gaharu samples of different grades, obtained commercially, using ¹H-NMR-based metabolomics. Two classification models: partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) and Random Forests were developed to classify the gaharu samples on the basis of their chemical constituents. The gaharu samples could be reclassified into a 'high grade' group (samples A, B and D), characterized by high contents of kusunol, jinkohol, and 10-epi-γ-eudesmol; an 'intermediate grade' group (samples C, F and G), dominated by fatty acid and vanillic acid; and a 'low grade' group (sample E and H), which had higher contents of aquilarone derivatives and phenylethyl chromones. The results showed that ¹H- NMR-based metabolomics can be a potential method to grade the quality of gaharu samples on the basis of their chemical constituents.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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