UHPLC–QTOF Metabolomic Profiling of Egyptian Blue Lily Reveals Bioactive Phytochemical Diversity

Because of its diverse phytochemical composition, the Egyptian blue Lily (Nymphaea nouchali) is recognized for its dietary and traditional medicinal purposes, attributed to its diverse phytochemical composition. Researchers set out to prepare a comprehensive metabolite profiling of the plant using high-resolution ultra-performance liquid chromatography/electrospray ionization/photo diode array detector/quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC/PDA/ESI-QTOF-MS). A paper based on their work was published in Scientific Reports (1).

Widely distributed in the temperate and tropical regions in mainly South Africa and along the Nile River, The Nymphaea genus (comprised of approximately 50 species from the water lily family) is an aquatic plant with a diverse floral morphology (2). Flowers from the plant were utilized as a natural food colorant and served as an integral component in functional beverages, especially green tea (3). The plants’ leaves, stems, and seeds are used as a staple food with a superior content of amino acids, especially glutathione, which is the primary precursor of neurotransmitter (γ amino butyric acid) (4). Additionally, the flowers and leaves show possible antioxidant, antihyperglycemic, and antihyperlipidemic activities (5).

Regarding the chromatographic/spectrometric techniques used in their study, the authors said, “UHPLC/HR-MS/MS is usually employed for the untargeted analysis of the complex structure of plant-based metabolites (6)^.UHPLC/PDA/ESI-QTOF-MS coupled with the Global Natural Products Social Molecular Networking (GNPS) platform aids in high throughput annotation of plant secondary metabolites. GNPS as a computational visualization technique was able to group compounds according to their similarities in MS/MS spectra and successfully uncover the connections between several analogues.” (7)

In their study, the research team annotated 185 secondary metabolites belonging to 10 chemical classes (phenolic acids, ellagitannins, flavonoids, anthocyanins, alkaloids, amino acids and vitamins, organic acids, fatty acids and amides, lipids, and sugars/sugar derivatives). Among them, 72 are newly reported, including ellagic acid, corilagin, patuletin glycosides, naringenin, eriodictyol glycosides, and spermidine alkaloids, as well as 33 lipids in Egyptian Nymphaea (1).

Flowers recorded the highest antioxidant activities with IC₅₀ (the concentration of a drug or inhibitor needed to inhibit a biological process or response by 50% [8]) values (45.15 µg/mL) for the organic chemical 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), (5.02 µg/ml) for (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid )ABTS⁺⁾, (54.07 µg/mL) for NO, (55.04 µg/mL) for H₂O₂ assays and (1.85 µg/mL) for acetylcholinesterase inhibition. Flowers demonstrated potential antioxidant activities in correlation to their flavonoids, anthocyanins and alkaloids. Multivariate analysis (MVA), including unsupervised tools like principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), and supervised orthogonal projections to latent structures discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) are likewise employed (1).

“This research is designed to deal in depth with the chemical profile of the Egyptian water lily and tried to correlate such profile with their corresponding neuroprotective effect,” wrote the authors of the study. They added that in vivo biological studies are planned to confirm the active agent post isolation from the active organs following results based on chemometric analysis. Regarding future work, the authors said that the targeting of the isolation of novel entities is a priority (1).

Read More on Similar Topics:

Separating Marigold Esters Using Supercritical Chromatography

Dissecting the Medical Benefits of Chrysanthemum Flowers

References

1. Younis, I. Y.; Essa, A. F.; El-Newary, S. A, et al. Unravelling Egyptian Blue Lily (Nymphaea nouchali) Organs' Metabolome via UHPLC/PDA/ESI-QTOF-MS and in Relation to their Antioxidant and Anti-Cholinesterase Effects. Sci Rep. 2025.DOI: 10.1038/s41598-025-30937-y
2. Kamble, M.; Poulose, V. C.; Singh, L. The Genus Nymphaea L. (Family nymphaeaceae) in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 2019, 116. DOI: 10.17087/jbnhs/2019/v116/108147
3. Dai, Y.; Tang, H.; Pang S. The Crucial Roles of Phospholipids in Aging and Lifespan Regulation. Front. Physiol. 2021, 12, 775648. DOI: 10.3389/fphys.2021.775648
4. Abelti, A. L.; Teka, T. A.; Bultosa, G. Review on Edible Water Lilies and Lotus: Future Food, Nutrition and their Health Benefits. Appl. Food Res. 2023, 3, 100264. DOI: 10.1016/j.afres.2023.100264
5. Anand, A.; Komati, A.; Katragunta, K. et al. Phytometabolomic Analysis of Boiled Rhizome of Nymphaea nouchali (Burm. f.) Using UPLC-Q-TOF-MS^E, LC-QqQ-MS & GC-MS and Evaluation of Antihyperglycemic and Antioxidant Activities. Food Chem. 2021, 342, 128313. DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2020.128313
6. Farag, M. A.; El-Kammar, H. A.;Abdelghany, S. et al. Seasonal and Taxa Impact on Edible Sea Cucumber’s Metabolome and in Relation to its Cytotoxicity as Analyzed via UHPLC/HR‐MS/MS‐Based Molecular Networking and Chemometrics. Food Front. 2024, 5, 584–606. DOI: 10.1002/fft2.332
7. Dai, J.; Liu, Z.; Ma, L. et al. Identification of Procyanidins as α-Glucosidase Inhibitors, Pancreatic Lipase Inhibitors, and Antioxidants from the Bark of Cinnamomum cassia by Multi-Bioactivity-Labeled Molecular Networking. Food Res. Int. 2024, 192, 114833. DOI: 10.1016/j.foodres.2024.114833
8. Half-Maximal Inhibitory Concentration (IC50). Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership website.https://revive.gardp.org/resource/half-maximal-inhibitory-concentration-ic50/?cf=encyclopaedia(accessed 2025-12-19)