Mass Spectrometry-Imaging Analysis of Active Ingredients in the Leaves of Taxus cuspidata

Background: Taxus cuspidata is an endangered evergreen conifer mainly found in Northeast Asia. In addition to the well-known taxanes, several active ingredients were detected in the leaves of T. cuspidata. However, the precise spatial distribution of active ingredients in the leaves of T. cuspidata is largely unknown. Results: in the present study, timsTOF flex MALDI-2 analysis was used to uncover the accumulation pattern of active ingredients in T. cuspidata leaves. In total, 3084 ion features were obtained, of which 944 were annotated according to the mass spectrometry database. The principal component analysis separated all of the detected metabolites into four typical leaf tissues: mesophyll cells, upper epidermis, lower epidermis, and vascular bundle cells. Imaging analysis identified several leaf tissues that specifically accumulated active ingredients, providing theoretical support for studying the regulation mechanism of compound biosynthesis. Furthermore, the relative accumulation levels of each identified compound were analyzed. Two flavonoid compounds, ligustroflavone and Morin, were identified with high content through quantitative analysis of the ion intensity. Conclusions: our data provides fundamental information for the protective utilization of T. cuspidata

Mass Spectrometry-Imaging Analysis of Active Ingredients in the Leaves of Taxus cuspidata

Background: Taxus cuspidata is an endangered evergreen conifer mainly found in Northeast Asia. In addition to the well-known taxanes, several active ingredients were detected in the leaves of T. cuspidata. However, the precise spatial distribution of active ingredients in the leaves of T. cuspidata is largely unknown. Results: in the present study, timsTOF flex MALDI-2 analysis was used to uncover the accumulation pattern of active ingredients in T. cuspidata leaves. In total, 3084 ion features were obtained, of which 944 were annotated according to the mass spectrometry database. The principal component analysis separated all of the detected metabolites into four typical leaf tissues: mesophyll cells, upper epidermis, lower epidermis, and vascular bundle cells. Imaging analysis identified several leaf tissues that specifically accumulated active ingredients, providing theoretical support for studying the regulation mechanism of compound biosynthesis. Furthermore, the relative accumulation levels of each identified compound were analyzed. Two flavonoid compounds, ligustroflavone and Morin, were identified with high content through quantitative analysis of the ion intensity. Conclusions: our data provides fundamental information for the protective utilization of T. cuspidata

Tetrathienodibenzocarbazole Based Donor–Acceptor Type Wide Band-Gap Copolymers for Polymer Solar Cell Applications

Two new donor–acceptor alternating wide band gap copolymers, <b>PTTDBC-PhQC8</b> and <b>PTTDBC-BTC12</b>, based on an electron-rich tetrathienodibenzocarbazole (<b>TTDBC</b>) donor have been designed and synthesized, wherein two additional thienyl rings are fused into a 2,7-dithienylcarbazole skeleton to reinforce the structural coplanarity and rigidity of polymers. The quinoid thiophene in <b>TTDBC</b> can endow not only a wide optical band gap (∼1.9 eV) but also a deep HOMO (∼5.3 eV) for the resulting polymers. The conventional configuration solar cells based on <b>PTTDBC-BTC12</b> exhibit a large <i>V</i>_oc of 0.91 V and a power conversion efficiency of 4.30% (with a <i>J</i>_sc of 9.27 mA cm^–2 and a FF of 0.51), while a slightly higher PCE of 4.50% can be achieved for the inverted structure devices. We believe that these wide band gap polymers have potential to be used for tandem cell applications