Application of Plant Metabonomics in Quality Assessment for Large-Scale Production of Traditional Chinese Medicine

Abstract

!The curative effects of traditional Chinese medicines are principally based on the synergic effect of their multi-targeting, multi-ingredient preparations, in contrast to modern pharmacology and drug development that often focus on a single chemical entity. Therefore, the method employing a few markers or pharmacologically active constituents to assess the quality and authenticity of the complex preparations has a number of severe challenges. Metabonomics can provide an effective platform for complex sample analysis. It is also reported to be applied to the quality analysis of the traditional Chinese medicine. Metabonomics enables comprehensive assessment of complex traditional Chinese medicines or herbal remedies and sample classification of diverse biological statuses, origins, or qualities in samples, by means of chemometrics. Identification, processing, and pharmaceutical preparation are the main procedures in the large-scale production of Chinese medicinal preparations. Through complete scans, plants metabonomics addresses some of the shortfalls of single analyses and presents a considerable potential to become a sharp tool for traditional Chinese medicine quality assessment.

Metabolomics Analysis of the Peels of Different Colored Citrus Fruits (Citrus reticulata cv. ‘Shatangju’) During the Maturation Period Based on UHPLC-QQQ-MS

“…Metabolomics, as one of the post-genome era members, is the branch of science concerned with the quantitative understanding of the metabolite components of integrated living systems (organisms, tissues or cells) and their dynamic responses to changes in both endogenous and exogenous factors. Plant metabolomics can yield a large amount of qualitative and quantitative data on metabolites according to the organism-specific metabolic pathways, metabolic networks, and functions that the metabolites participate in; thus, biologically meaningful data can be retrieved [13]. Plant metabolomic studies have been of value for the identification of metabolites, regional differences, natural variations, and intraspecific and interspecific differences in citrus fruits [14,15], figs [16], and tomatoes [17].…”

Why is Research on Herbal Medicinal Products Important and How Can We Improve Its Quality?

“…The first (most recent) 10 papers deal with type II diabetes or diabetic nephropathy, comparison between Europe and China on the safety of materials, the European Union (EU) herbals directive, plant metabolomics in quality assessment, various activities of selected herbs, and integrative nanomedicine. [12345678910] Examples of typical articles published in a Western medical journal are either original papers on interaction potential,[1112] or systemic and general reviews on the use of herbal medicines in various conditions,[1314] on the quality, efficacy, and safety,[15] on herb–drug interactions[1617] or herbal side effects, especially in hepatotoxicity. [18] A recurring theme in conclusions of these reviews was the lack of adequate scientific data to judge efficacy and/or safety and the less-than-desirable quality of the published data.…”

A Novel Ligustrazine Derivative T-VA Prevents Neurotoxicity in Differentiated PC12 Cells and Protects the Brain against Ischemia Injury in MCAO Rats

“…In recent years, it was suggested that some traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and their products demonstrated protective effect against ischemic injury [ 7 ]. Thus, justifying TCM use in ischemic stroke patients is principally based on the synergic effect of their multi-categories [ 8 , 9 ].…”