Metabolomics: An Important Emerging Technology in the Field of Phytomedicine and Drug Development
Lakshmi KS1* and Vijayakumar TM2
1Department of Pharmaceutical Analysis, SRM College of Pharmacy, India
2Department of Pharmacy Practice, SRM College of Pharmacy, India
Submission: March 09, 2018; Published: March 23, 2018
*Corresponding author: Lakshmi KS, Dean, SRM College of Pharmacy, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Kattankulathur-603 203, Kanchipuram (Dt), TamilNadu, India, Email: kslakshmi13@gmail.com
How to cite this article: Lakshmi KS, Vijayakumar TM. Metabolomics: An Important Emerging Technology in the Field of Phytomedicine and Drug Development. Mod Appl Bioequiv Availab. 2018; 3(4): 555616. DOI: 10.19080/MABB.2018.03.555616
Opinion
In the past few decades, the use of herbal drugs in the developed world has flourished into a multibillion-dollar industry, which has been expedited by less rigid regulations [1] . Although the marketplace provides liberal access to a superfluity of inadequately evaluated products, there has been a move in recent years to provide more evidence-based support to determine objectively the safety and efficacy of medicinal herbs [2] . The potency and efficacy of phytoconstituents need to be established through several modern approaches including the pharmacokinetic profiles of the molecules for better absorption and bioavailability.
Metabolomics is the complete quantitative and qualitative analysis of a specific set of metabolites (target methodology) or all metabolites (untargeted methodology) present in a specific cell, tissue, or organism [3]. Metabolomics fingerprinting can be very helpful in the field of herbal medicine for drug discovery, systems biology, gene-function analysis and various diagnostic techniques through different modern hyphenated technologies [4].
Analytical techniques employed in metabolomics study includes liquid chromatography-mass spectroscopy (LC- MS), gas chromatography and mass spectroscopy (GC-MS), capillary electrophoresis-mass spectroscopy (CE-MS), thin layer chromatography (TLC), Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Amongst these, the most popular analytical methods are those based on MS and NMR spectroscopy. The main advantages of the NMR over the rest of the analytical techniques are that it can detect a wide range of chemical compounds of different nature; quantification does not pose any problem; it is highly reproducible and metabolite identification is simple. Perhaps the most important benefit is that the method is quick and simple, and the damage of the existing compounds during the preparation of the extracts is minimal. However, the technique is not very sensitive (Figure 1).
Developments in terms ofamplified NMR sensitivity enhanced mass accuracy and resolution in the case of mass spectrometers, and accurate monitoring of altered proteomes during proteomics will result in effective biomarker representation.
References
- Tilburt JC, Kaptchuk TJ (2008) Herbal medicine research and global health: an ethical analysis. Bull World Health Organ 86(8): 594-599.
- Vijayakumar TM, Kumar RM, Agrawal A, Dubey GP, Ilango K, et al. (2015) Comparative inhibitory potential of selected dietary bioactive polyphenols, phytosterols on CYP3A4 and CYP2D6 with fluorometric high-throughput screening. J Food Sci Technol 52(7): 4537-4543.
- Verpoorte R, Choi YH, Kim HK (2010) Metabolomics: will it stay? Phytochemical Analysis 21(1): 2-3.
- Quansah E, Karikari TK (2016) Potential role of metabolomics in the improvement of research on traditional African medicine. Phytochemistry Letters 17: 270-277.