Metabolism of ibuprofen in higher plants: A model Arabidopsis thaliana cell suspension culture system

- Ibuprofen was effectively metabolized by Arabidopsis thaliana cell suspensoins.
- More than 300 metabolites were found, most of them were firstly reported in plant.
- Most of the metabolites were accumulated in cells.
- Conjugates with saccharides and amino acids dominated among identified compounds.
- Methylation was important step of ibuprofen metabolism in the model plant cells.

The uptake and metabolism of ibuprofen (IBU) by plants at the cellular level was investigated using a suspension culture of A. thaliana. Almost all IBU added to the medium (200 μM) was metabolized or bound to insoluble structures in 5 days. More than 300 metabolites were determined by liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS) analysis, and most of these are first reported for plants here. Although hydroxylated derivatives formed by oxidation on the isobutyl side chain were the main first-step products of IBU degradation, conjugates of these products with sugar, methyl and amino acid groups were the dominant metabolites in the culture. The main portion of total added IBU (81%) was accumulated in the extractable intracellular pool, whereas the cultivation medium fraction contained only 19%. The amount of the insoluble cell-wall-bound IBU was negligible (0.005% of total IBU).

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