Abstract:
Pear blossoms have rich nutrition and great potential as the ingredient of emerging functional foods. To clarify the relationship and mechanism between bioactives from different varieties and their activities including antioxidant and anti-inflammatory, pear blossoms from eight main planting varieties in Hebei Province were selected, including Qiuyue pear, Hongxiangsu, Xueqing pear, Xinli No. 7, Xuehua pear, Huangguan, Anli, and Yali pear. The functional components, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities of pear blossom extracts were analyzed. Correlation and network pharmacology were applied to predict its mechanism. Results showed that the total phenolic, flavonoid, triterpenoid, and sugar contents of pear blossom extracts from different varieties were 6.95~47.11 mg/g DW, 1.96~3.90 mg/g DW, 51.41~74.16 mg/g DW, and 149.54~321.91 mg/g DW, respectively. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used to detect phenolic compounds, organic acids, and soluble monosaccharides.
In vitro experiments demonstrated that pear blossom exacts exhibited significant antioxidant and inflammatory activities. The extracts of Yali pear and Xuehua pear had optimal inhibitory effect on ROS production, whereas the extract of Xuehua pear exhibited the optimal promotion of GSH and SOD antioxidant enzyme activities. The correlation analysis showed that catechin, arbutin, rutin, rhamnose and galacturonic acid were the main active substances, as well as catechin and rutin were significantly correlated with the active indexes. Network pharmacological prediction showed that oxidative stress and inflammatory pathways were the main pathways, verified by the results of RT qPCR. Comprehensive analysis showed that the flower extract from Xuehua pear had the optimal effective on improving oxidative stress and inflammatory damage.