Comparative analysis of bioactive N-alkylamides produced by tissue culture raised versus field plantlets of Spilanthes ciliata using LC-Q-TOF (HRMS)

Spilanthes ciliata (S. ciliata) is a perennial herb of global importance owing to its luscious source of bioactive fatty acid derived amides known as N-alkylamides. It finds application in skin creams, mouth gels and toothpastes. Despite multifaceted applications, a major limitation associated for its commercial application is the scarcity of contamination free plant source, fluctuations in active metabolites due to variation in extraction procedures, and lack of rapid qualitative method for alkylamide profiling. In the current work, attempts were made to 1) optimize conditions for mass propagation of contamination free plants of S. ciliata by tissue culture using leaf discs as explants, 2) establish an optimum extraction ratio of plant/solvent (w/v) for maximum elution of alkylamides and 3) develop a rapid method for qualitative estimation of alkylamide from in vitro raised plants in comparison with that of the field grown counterpart by using LC-Q-TOF (HRMS). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first qualitative report on alkylamide profile of micropropagated whole plant of Spilanthes. The correlation pattern reported in this study may form the basis for using tissue culture raised plantlets of S. ciliata as potential source of bioactive alkylamides on industrial scale.