Bioactivity-guided separation of potential α-glycosidase inhibitor from clerodendranthus spicatus based on HSCCC coupled with molecular docking

Clerodendranthus Spicatus is a traditional Dais medi-edible plant and it has been proven to have good blood glucose-lowering efficacy. However, the material basis of Clerodendranthus Spicatus has not been clarified yet and therefore needs to be determined. In this paper, the effective ingredients of this medicine were purified by high-speed counter-current chromatography. Alongside, their potential hypoglycemic activity was determined by α-glucosidase inhibitory activities in vitro and molecular docking. Finally, five compounds were purified and identified as 2-caffeoyl-L-tartaric acid (1), N-(E)-caffeoyldopamine (2), rosmarinc acid (3), methyl rosmarinate (4), 6,7,8,3′,4′-Pentamethoxyflavone (5). Examination of α-glucosidase inhibitory activity in vitro showed that 2-caffeoyl-L-tartaric acid and rosmarinic acid had a higher inhibitory activity than acarbose. Molecular docking indicated that the affinity energy of the identified compounds ranged from − 7.6 to − 8.6 kcal/mol, a more desirable result than acarbose (− 6.6 kcal/mol). Particularly, rosmarinc acid with the lowest affinity energy of − 8.6 kcal/mol was wrapped with 6 hydrogen bonds. Overall, α-glucosidase inhibitory activities and molecular docking suggested that rosmarinc acid was likely to be a promising hypoglycemic drug.