Study on Spectrum-Effect Relationship of Rhizoma Rhei, Cortex Magnoliae Officinalis, Fructus Aurantii Immaturus and their Formula

Abstract

Rhizoma Rhei, cortex Magnoliae Officinalis and fructus Aurantii Immaturus compose dachengqi tang (DCQT), a classical formula of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) that is used for acute intestinal obstruction and has been proven to be effective and economic. However, the ingredients of TCM are complicated, and it is unclear which ingredients are the most important for its effects. In this paper, the relationship between the spectra and effects is discussed to provide a powerful method and some insights into the quality control of the herbs and their formula. High-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) fingerprint analysis was performed to investigate the chemical structures in different batches of rhizoma Rhei, cortex Magnoliae Officinalis, fructus Aurantii Immaturus and DCQT. Hierarchical clustering analysis was employed to evaluate the similarities between fingerprints. Animal model of small intestinal propulsion was established to study the purgative functions of the herbs and DCQT. The relationship between the chemical ingredients and the effects was explored by regression analysis. HPLC fingerprint analysis results demonstrated variations between ingredients in different batches of rhizoma Rhei, cortex Magnoliae Officinalis, fructus Aurantii Immaturus and DCQT. The origin, collection time and preparation process may have contributed to these differences. Small intestinal propulsion results showed that, compared with the control group, the positive and therapeutic groups including single herbs and formula were significantly effective (P < 0.05). Spectrum-effect relationship results indicated that seven peak ingredients, hesperidin, aloe-emodin, honokiol, rhein, magnolol, emodin and sennoside A, were inducted in the regression equation, among which, the influence of sennoside A was the largest and most positively associated with the effects. The data analysis results indicated that many ingredients contributed to the purgative effects, among which, sennoside A might be the most important effective component; therefore, sennoside A should be determined for quality control. Furthermore, the spectrum-effect relationship is simple, operative and suitable for the quality evaluation of TCM.

Study on the HPLC Chromatograms and Pro-Angiogenesis Activities of the Flowers ofPanax notoginseng

“…In our previous study, relationships between spectrums and effects of numerous selected herbs were investigated and discussed. [19] The study demonstrated that the integration of biological activity with chemical fingerprinting is an advantageous tool for the evaluation of quality of herbal medicines. [19] The present study investigated the difference of chemical compositions and angiogenesis activities of twelve PF samples as well as the relationships of their HPLC fingerprints and proangiogenesis effect were explored.…”

“…[19] The study demonstrated that the integration of biological activity with chemical fingerprinting is an advantageous tool for the evaluation of quality of herbal medicines. [19] The present study investigated the difference of chemical compositions and angiogenesis activities of twelve PF samples as well as the relationships of their HPLC fingerprints and proangiogenesis effect were explored. In this study, the chemical fingerprints of PF were established successfully and obtained data were further analyzed using similarity evaluation and HCA.…”

Screening anaphylactoid components of Shuang Huang Lian Injection by analyzing spectrum–effect relationships coupled with UPLC–TOF–MS

“…Regression is a statistical method to verify the linearity of the nonlinear relationship between one or more independent variables and a dependent variable, and is used to study spectrum–effect relationships (Li, Wang, Wang, & Zhu, ; Xie, Zhou, Shi, Li, & Li, ). In this study, ENTER and STEPWISE methods in regression were used to obtain the union results.…”

Multi-Dimensional Spectrum-Effect Relationship of the Impact of Chinese Herbal Formula Lichong Shengsui Yin on Ovarian Cancer

“…Regression is a statistical method used to verify the linearity of the non-linear relationship between one or more independent variables and a dependent variable, and was used to study the spectrum-effect relationships [ 46 , 47 ]. In this study, the ENTER and STEPWISE methods in regression were respectively used to obtain the union results.…”