Determination of the Chemical Composition of Lady’s Bedstraw (Galium verum L.) Herb Extract by GC-MS

The search for new sources of plant materials and the creation of herbal medicine products based on them with high therapeutic efficacy and low toxicity is currently demanded. Lady’s bedstraw (Galium verum L., Figure 1.1.1), the Rubiaceae family, is of considerable interest for study. It has a wide range of pharmacological effects and is used only in traditional medicine. G. verum L. crude herbal drugs (CHD) have anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antiseptic, restorative, choleretic, analgesic, diuretic, antispasmodic, estrogenic effects. Also, this plant is used in the prevention and treatment of cancer.2-5 The chemical composition of the G. verum L is very rich and diverse; it contains tannins6, triterpene compounds7, essential oil8, organic acids9, carotenoids10, flavonoids11,12, iridoid glycosides13, anthracene derivatives14 and other biologically active compounds (BAC). Earlier, we studied the toxicity of Lady’s bedstraw aqueous extract in experiments on laboratory animals. We concluded that the Lady’s bedstraw liquid extract refers to IV class, known as slightly hazardous substances according to the classification of chemicals by hazard.15


INTRODUCTION
The search for new sources of plant materials and the creation of herbal medicine products based on them with high therapeutic efficacy and low toxicity is currently demanded. Lady's bedstraw (Galium verum L., Figure 1.1. 1 ), the Rubiaceae family, is of considerable interest for study. It has a wide range of pharmacological effects and is used only in traditional medicine. G. verum L. crude herbal drugs (CHD) have anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antiseptic, restorative, choleretic, analgesic, diuretic, antispasmodic, estrogenic effects. Also, this plant is used in the prevention and treatment of cancer. [2][3][4][5] The chemical composition of the G. verum L is very rich and diverse; it contains tannins 6 , triterpene compounds 7 , essential oil 8 , organic acids 9 , carotenoids 10 , flavonoids 11,12 , iridoid glycosides 13 , anthracene derivatives 14 and other biologically active compounds (BAC). Earlier, we studied the toxicity of Lady's bedstraw aqueous extract in experiments on laboratory animals. We concluded that the Lady's bedstraw liquid extract refers to IV class, known as slightly hazardous substances according to the classification of chemicals by hazard. 15 As G. verum L. herb possesses a wide spectrum of biological activity (including cancer prevention and treatment) our research aimed to carry out an in-depth study of the plant's ethanol extract chemical composition by gas chromatography with mass spectrometric detection.

Plant material
G. verum L. herb was collected in July 2018 in the southwest of the Moscow region (Russia), dried in the air-shade.

Sample preparation
Sample of the raw material was ground to a particle size passing through a sieve with a hole size of 2 mm. Lady's bedstraw ethanol extract (1:10) was prepared using 70 % ethanol. Then it was evaporated in a nitrogen stream at room temperature to 0.1 cm 3 residual volume. The prepared sample was analyzed by gas chromatography with a mass spectrometric detector in total ion current mode.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The result of G. verum L. herb ethanol extract qualitative analysis is presented in Table 1.
G. verum L. herb ethanol extract chromatogram is presented in Figure 2.
The mass spectra of the identified compounds (compared to library mass spectra) are shown in Figures 3-10.
The identified compounds, for the most part, are fatty acids and their esters in Lady's bedstraw herb ethanol extract. Phytol -an acyclic aliphatic organic chemical compound, refers to diterpenes, that have monounsaturated isoprene residues as a base. Phytol is part of chlorophyll, vitamin E, vitamin K 1 as a phytyl substitute.

CONCLUSION
We identified 15 compounds not previously described in the literature. Identification is based on the Lady's bedstraw herb ethanol extract mass spectrometric studies. The obtained data can be used in further study of Lady's bedstraw and the creation of new herbal medicine products and regulatory documentation on its basis.