Identification and Quantification of Potential Anti-inflammatory Hydroxycinnamic Acid Amides from Wolfberry

Wolfberry or Goji berry, the fruit of Lycium barbarum, exhibits health-promoting properties that leads to an extensive study of their active components. We synthesized a set of hydroxycinnamic acid amide (HCCA) compounds, including trans-caffeic acid, trans-ferulic acid, and 3,4-dihydroxyhydrocinnamic acid, with extended phenolic amine components as standards to identify and quantify the corresponding compounds from wolfberry and to investigate anti-inflammatory properties of these compounds using in vitro model. With optimized LC-MS/MS and NMR analysis, nine amide compounds were identified from the fruits. Seven of these compounds were identified in this plant for the first time. The amide compounds with a tyramine moiety were the most abundant. In vitro studies indicated that five HCCA compounds showed inhibitory effect on NO production inuded by lipopolysaccharides with IC₅₀ less than 15.08 μM (trans-N-feruloyl dopamine). These findings suggested that wolfberries demonstrated anti-inflammatory properties.