Open Access

ARTICLE

Ecological Factors Drive the Accumulation of Active Components in Codonopsis pilosula

Menghan Li^1,2,#, Yuhui He^1,#, Changning Chen², Li Liu², Jia Xu², Jiahao Cao^1,2, Xiaotong Guo^1,*, Linlin Dong^1,2,*

1 College of Horticulture, University, Yantai, 264000, Shandong, China
2 Key Laboratory of Beijing for Identification and Safety Evaluation of Chinese Medicine, Institute of Chinese Materia Medica, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing, 100700, China

* Corresponding Authors: Xiaotong Guo. Email: ; Linlin Dong. Email:
# These authors contributed equally to this work

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany 2025, 94(8), 2575-2591. https://doi.org/10.32604/phyton.2025.064518

Received 18 February 2025; Accepted 21 May 2025; Issue published 29 August 2025

Abstract

Codonopsis pilosula is a major Qi-tonifying medicinal herb, and its active composition is analyzed systematically. However, the relationship between its production origins and commodity specification grades with the active composition of C. pilosula lacks systematic research. This study integrates the HPLC and UV-Vis methodologies to evaluate the quality of C. pilosula from commodity specification grades and different origins, and it explores the correlation between ecological factors and production origins with active components. Here, network pharmacology is used to determine that lobetyolin, syringin, and tangshenoside I have potential efficacy in treating pulmonary fibrosis and oxidative stress. The HPLC and UV-Vis methods were employed to quantitatively analyse the levels of five active compounds from different origins and commodity specification grades. Ecological factors were collected from the different production origins with ArcGIS, and correlation analysis was conducted between these factors and the active components of C. pilosula to identify the key ecological influences that drive the accumulation of active compounds. Results showed that network pharmacology analyses indicated that the active components of C. pilosula, including lobetyolin, syringin, and tangshenoside I, bind to targets and exhibit antioxidant and anti-pulmonary fibrosis effects. Differences in the contents of active components across three commodity specification grades were not significant. The contents of active components in C. pilosula showed differences with varying origins, with the most variation observed in soluble sugar content, and notable variations are also observed in the levels of lobetyolin, syringin, and tangshenoside I, which could serve as potential biomarkers for different origins. Additionally, ecological factors influenced the accumulation of C. pilosula’s active components. The contents of soluble sugars and tangshenoside I were positively correlated with temperature and precipitation. Our study evaluated the active components of C. pilosula, and findings show that lobetyolin, syringin, and tangshenoside I have potential efficacy in treating pulmonary fibrosis and oxidative stress. The differences in the quality of C. pilosula across varying commodity specification grades are not significant. The different contents of C. pilosula across varying origins are significant, with soluble sugars and glycosides serving as potential markers for distinguishing C. pilosula from different origins. Moreover, ecological factors drove the accumulation of C. pilosula components. Soluble sugars and tangshenoside I content were particularly influenced by temperature and precipitation. Sand content and electrical conductivity significantly correlated with syringin, whereas organic carbon negatively influenced total flavonoids. This research provides a theoretical basis for the selection of the C. pilosula growing area and lays a foundation for the study of the C. pilosula quality standard.

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Supplementary Material

Supplementary Material File

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