Studies have discovered the synthesis mechanism of cichoric acid, the active ingredient of Echinacea purpurea

Echinacea Photo by Fu Rao

Echinacea is a medicinal plant native to North America.

Cichoric acid is the main component of Echinacea purpurea, the content is up to 4% of the dry weight.

On March 10th, Zhang Yang's team, a researcher from the School of Life Sciences of Sichuan University, published a research paper online in "Nature-Communication", fully analyzing the biosynthesis pathway of cichoric acid, the main active ingredient in echinacea.

In order to explore the biosynthetic pathway of cichoric acid and lay the foundation for subsequent research in synthetic biology, the team of researchers combined traditional biochemical methods and modern plant molecular biology research methods, and first successfully established an in vitro enzyme reaction system through the separation of enzymes.

The biosynthesis of cichoric acid involves two major families of acyltransferases known in plants, BAHD and SCPL.

This research is an important progress in the field of medicinal plant research, and provides new research ideas for the analysis of biosynthetic pathways of medicinal ingredients.

Associate researcher Fu Rao of the School of Life Sciences of Sichuan University and PhD student Zhang Pingyu are the co-first authors of the paper, and Researcher Zhang Yang is the corresponding author.

Related paper information: https://doi.