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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Pharmacol.
Sec. Ethnopharmacology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphar.2025.1498280

Anti-aging activities of an ethanolic extract of Lycium ruthenicum in Caenorhabditis elegans based on metabonomic analysis

Provisionally accepted
Boya Cui Boya Cui 1Lanying Liu Lanying Liu 2Xinmeng Qiao Xinmeng Qiao 1Tao Shi Tao Shi 1Min Yin Min Yin 1Shu Xu Shu Xu 1Xu Feng Xu Feng 1Yu Shan Yu Shan 1*
  • 1 Institute of Botany, Jiangsu Province and Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, China
  • 2 Institute of Wolfberry Engineering Technology Research, Ningxia Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Yinchuan, Henan Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The fruits of Lycium ruthenicum Murr. (Solanaceae) are employed in ethnomedicine and used as a functional food. Their antioxidant, anti-aging, and hypolipidemic activities have been investigated in modern research. This study indicated that the ethanolic extract of the fruits of L. ruthenicum Murr. (LRM) improved oxidative and heat stress tolerance, reduced the accumulation of lipofuscin, and retarded the aging process in Caenorhabditis elegans (Rhabditidae). Furthermore, the pharyngeal pumping rate and body length decreased under LRM treatment. Moreover, metabolomic analysis and the DPClusO algorithm revealed that LRM regulated a series of lifespan-related pathways centered on glycine, serine, and threonine metabolism. These results suggest that LRM prolongs the lifespan of C. elegans via dietary restriction. Moreover, feruloyl putrescine, a kind of polyamine, was found in differential metabolites, which may be the metabolite of caffeoyl-spermidine in LRM. These findings from this exploratory study offer a new insight into the roles of L. ruthenicum in anti-aging activity as a functional food.

    Keywords: Dietary restriction 1, Glycine, Serine, and threonine metabolism 2, Lifespan 3, Nematode 4, Spermidine 5

    Received: 18 Sep 2024; Accepted: 13 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Cui, Liu, Qiao, Shi, Yin, Xu, Feng and Shan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Yu Shan, Institute of Botany, Jiangsu Province and Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.