BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Platycodon grandiflorum is a traditional Chinese
herbal medi-cine, which can disperse lung, promote pharynx, dispel
phlegm and expel pus. Its processing history was first seen in the
“Zhou Hou Bei Ji Fang“ of the Jin Dynasty in China. Through
pro-cessing, effective substances in plants can be enriched and negative
substances can be reduced. Therefore, this study explored the effects of
different processing methods on the antitussive and expectorant effects
of Platycodon grandiflorum through metabolomics and pharmacology, aiming
to provide a theoretical basis for clinical application. EXPERIMENTAL
APPROACH: The changes of metabolites before and after processing of
Platycodon grandiflorum were analyzed by Nexera UHPLC
LC-30A-HILIC-Orbitrap-Q Exactive HF-X platform. The antitussive and
expectorant effects of processed Platycodon grandiflorum were verified
by mouse concentrated ammonia induced cough method and tracheal phenol
red drainage method. KEY RESULTS: After processing, some metabolites of
Platycodon grandiflorum changed, among which 24 kinds of terpenoid
metabolites changed significantly. Through the experiment of
am-monia-induced cough in mice and phenol red expectorant experiment, it
was found that fresh JZI 40 %, fresh CZ 80 %, dry JZZ 40 % and dry
JZI 80 % had obvious antitussive effect, and dry JZZ 40 % had obvious
expectorant effect. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Some processing
methods can indeed further improve the antitussive and expectorant
effects of Platycodon grandiflorum, which may be due to the ef-fect of
increasing the content of triterpenoids after processing, but the
mechanism of processing to improve the effect of relieving cough and
expectorant needs further study.