INTRODUCTION
Paulownia is a genus of plants in the Paulowniaceae family, formerly
classified as Scrophulariaceae. The plant was named in honour of the
Queen of the Netherlands, Anna Pavlovna Romanov, who financed the trip
to China from which this tree was first brought. The species of this
genus include: Paulownia catalpifolia T. Gong ex D.Y. Hong,Paulownia elongata S.Y. Hu, Paulownia fargesii Franch.,Paulownia fortunei (Seem.) Hemsl., Paulownia kawakamiiT.Itô, Paulownia taiwaniana T.W. Hu & H.J. Chang,Paulownia tomentosa Steud. Paulownia Clon in Vitro 112, a hybrid
of two species (Paulownia fortunei and Paulownia
elongata ), known under the trade name Oxytree, has been popularized as
a tree with exceptionally strong biomass growth, in the first two years
of growth, with huge leaves producing ten times more oxygen than any
other tree. Oxytree wood is half the weight of other hardwoods, and once
dried, it does not gain moisture. Growing Oxytree is a perpetual motion,
because a tree once planted is cut after 6 years, when it reaches 16
meters in height and 35 centimetres in diameter, and then grows back
from the trunk and grows so quickly that after 4 years, it is ready to
be cut again - such a process is repeated four more times. Paulownia
Clon in Vitro112, unlike other Paulownia species, does not propagate by
seeds or root cuttings, but only in vitro .
The species tested for the content of secondary metabolites is P.
tomentosa var. tomentosa . The authors of these studies found in theleaves of P. tomentosa: matteucinol (syn.
4-O -methylfarrerol), ursolic acid (Zhu et al., 1986),
homoeriodictyol (syn. hesperetin), 3-epiursolic acid, pomolic acid,
corosolic acid, maslinic acid, β-sitosterol, daucosterol (Zhang and Li,
2011), apigenin (Zhao et al., 2012), luteolin, quercetin, (+)-catechin,
(-)-epicatechin, naringenin, taxifolin, (Si et al., 2008a),
7,3’-dimethylquercetin (syn. rhamnazin), 7,3’,4’-trimethylquercetin,
7,3’,4’-trimethylmyricetin, 7,3’,4’,5’-tetramethylmyricetin (Wollenweber
et al., 2008), diplacol, 3’-O -methyldiplacone,
3’-O -methyl-5’-hydroxydiplacone (syn.
6-geranyl-4’,5,5’,7-tetrahydroxy-3’-methoxyflavanone) (Kobayashi et al.,
2008), acteoside (syn. verbascoside), isoacteoside (syn.
isoverbascoside) (Schilling et al., 1982), 7-β-hydroxyharpagide,
paulownioside, catalpol, aucubin, tomentoside, 7-hydroxytomentoside
(Adriani et al., 1981), p-hydroxybenzoic acid, vanillic acid, gallic
acid, cinnamic acid, p -coumaric acid, caffeic acid (Ota et al.,
1993) ; and in the bark : quercetin, naringenin,
7-caffeoyl-acacetin (syn. 7-caffeoyl-4’-methoxyapigenin), isoacteoside
(syn. isoverbascoside), isocampneoside II, cistanoside F (Si et al.,
2011b), ilicifolioside A, campneoside II (syn. β-hydroxyacteoside),
isoilicifolioside A (Si et al., 2008b), isocampneoside I (Si et al.,
2008d), coniferin (syn. abietin, coniferosid, laricin), syringin (syn.
eleutherosid B), acteoside (syn. verbascoside) (Sticher and Lahloub,
1982), β-Oxoacteoside (syn. tomentoside A), martynoside, campneoside I
(Kang et al., 1994), catalpol (Plouvier, 1971), gallic acid, cinnamic
acid (Ota et al., 1993); in the fruits :
7,3’,4’,5’-tetramethylmyricetin (Wollenweber et al., 2008),
dihydrotricin, 6-isopentenyl-3’-O -methyltaxifolin,
3’-O -methyl-5’-hydroxydiplacone (syn.
6-geranyl-4’,5,5’,7-tetrahydroxy-3’-methoxyflavanone),
3’-O -methyl-5’-methoxydiplacol, schizolaenone C,
6-geranyl-3’,5,5’,7-tetrahydroxy-4’-methoxyflavanone, tomentodiplacone
B, tomentodiplacone, tomentodiplacol, acteoside (syn. verbascoside),
isoacteoside (syn. isoverbascoside) (Šmejkal et al., 2007a),
3,4’,5,5’,7-pentahydroxy-3’-methoxy-6-(3-methyl-2-butenyl)flavanone,
diplacol, 3’-O -methyldiplacone, 3’-O -methyldiplacol (syn.
diplacol 3’-O -methylether),
3’-O -methyl-5’-O -methyldiplacone (syn.
6-geranyl-4’,5,7-trihydroxy-3’,5’-dimethoxyflavanone,
6-geranyl-5,7-dihydroxy-3’,4’-dimethoxyflavanone,
3,3’,4’,5,7-pentahydroxy-6-[7-hydroxy-3,7-dimethyl-2(E)octenyl]flavanone,
prokinawan,
4’,5,5’,7-tetrahydroxy-6-[6-hydroxy-3,7-dimethyl-2(E),7-octadienyl]-3’-methoxyflavanone,
3,3’,4’,5,7-pentahydroxy-6-[6-hydroxy-3,7-dimethyl-2(E),7-octadienyl]flavanone
(Asai et al., 2008), 6-geranyl-3’,5,7-trihydroxy-4’-methoxyflavanone
(syn. 4’-O -methyldiplacone),
6-geranyl-3,3’,5,7-tetrahydroxy-4’-methoxyflavanone (syn.
4’-O -methyldiplacol),
6-geranyl-3,3’,5,5’,7-pentahydroxy-4’-methoxyflavanone, tomentin A, B,
C, D, E (Cho et al., 2012, 2013), tanariflavanone D, tomentomimulol,
mimulone B (Schneiderova´et al., 2013), mimulone E, tomentodiplacone C,
D, E, F, G, H, I, mimulone C, D (Navrátilova´ et al., 2013),
5,7-dihydroxy-6-geranylchromone (Šmejkal et al., 2008a) ; and in theflowers: apigenin, mimulone (syn. 6-geranylnaringenin,
bonannione A), 5,4’-dihydroxy-7,3’-dimethoxyflavanone, diplacone (syn.
propolin C, nymphaeol A) (Jiang et al., 2004),
5-hydroxy-7,3’,4’-trimethoxyflavanone, isoatriplicolide tiglate (Kim et
al., 2010a, b), diplacol, 3’-O -methyldiplacone,
3’-O -methyldiplacol (syn. diplacol 3’-O -methylether),
prokinawan (Kobayashi et al., 2008), p -ethoxybenzaldehyde (Yuan
et al., 2009).
Paulownia tomentosa is a rich source of secondary metabolites of
groups such as: non-prenylated flavonoid aglycones, C-prenylated and
C-geranylated flavonoids, flavonoid glycosides, iridoids, phytosterols
and phenolic acids. Biologically active compounds are used as
traditional Chinese herbal remedies, as well as influence modern
healthcare.
Flavonoids have a potential role as anti-cancer compounds for use in
cervical and breast (Bulzomi et al., 2010, 2012), hepatoma, leukemia
(Zhao et al., 2012), osteosarcoma (Chen et al., 2013), gastric cancer
(Lu et al., 2013), colon adenocarcinoma (Sánchez-Tena et al. 2013) or
prostate (Zhang and Coultas, 2013) cancer cell lines. Their antioxidant
properties explain the cardioprotective effect (Paneerselvam et al.,
2010; Psotova et al., 2004) and neuroprotective action (Losi et al.,
2004). It has been found to exhibit antibacterial properties (Betts et
al., 2013; Jiang et al., 2004; Mankovskaia et al., 2013) and antiviral
(Khachatoorian et al,. 2012) biological activity against various
pathogens.
Iridoid - catalpol shows radioprotective activity (Chen et al., 2013),
neuroprotective (Li et al., 2004), cardioprotective effect on the heart
muscle (Human); also increases glucose utilization by increased
secretion of β-endorphin from the adrenal gland (Shieh et al. 2011).
Aucubin had an antioxidant and protective effect on the pancreas and can
alleviate the obesity-induced atherosclerosis (Park, 2013).
Phytosterols are potentially useful for the treatment of Alzheimer’s
disease (Wilkinson et al., 2011). They show a cytotoxic effect against
K562 and K562 / ADR human chronic myeloid leukemia, human HL60 and HL60
/ ADR acute myeloid leukemia cancer cells and neoplastic cells human
colon cancer cell lines SW480 and SW620 (Shan et al., 2011). They have
anti-inflammatory (Deepak and Handa, 2000; Schinella et al., 2008),
antimalarial (Moneriz et al., 2011), anti-diabetic effects (Sivakumar et
al., 2009), reduce blood pressure, as well as are useful in the
treatment of traumatic cerebral ischemia (Guan et al., 2011).
In the present study, a targeted identification and quantification of
the secondary metabolites, present in Paulownia Clon in Vitro 112, were
achieved by UPLC-MS/MS and UPLC-DAD.