Metabolic profiling of Lupinus species from Cundinamarca (Colombia)

Plants belonging to the genus Lupinus are widely distributed around the world. They are characterized by attractive flowers, but are also described as invasive. High contents of quinolizidine alkaloids and isoflavonoids are reported for Lupinus species [1,2]. Those from Cundinamarca Department in Colombia have almost exclusively blue-colored flowers. In spite of their significantly high distribution in this region, there is a lack of information regarding their chemical composition and metabolic profiling. Therefore, to obtain metabolic profiles of several Lupinus taxa, including endemic ones, they were analyzed by means of LC-DAD-ESI-MS and multivariate statistical tools; five species and 39 specimens were examined. Analyses were carried out on different plant parts. Significant inter- and intra-species-dependent differences were observed between the chromatographic profiles, as well as marked chemical variations between the different plant organs. Nevertheless, particular relationships could be established leading to the conclusion that similarities in metabolic pathways are expressed for this set of Colombian Lupinus species. Concurrently, representative samples were subjected to alkaloid extraction and analysis by GC-MS. Dissimilarities between species were also found, although to a lesser extent. The results indicated that Colombian Lupinus taxa are organisms with dynamic metabolism requiring further phytochemical investigation. Acknowledgement: The present work is a result of Project IMP-CIAS-1567 financed by Vicerrectoría de Investigaciones at UMNG – Validity 2014. References: [1] Ganzera M, Krüger A, Wink M. Determination of quinazolidine alkaloids in different Lupinus species by NACE using UV and MS detection. J Pharm Biomed Anal 2010; 53: 1231 – 1235. [2] Wojakowska A, et al. Structural analysis and profiling of phenolic secondary metabolites of Mexican lupine species using LC-MS techniques. Phytochemistry 2013; 92: 71 – 86.