ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To probe into the influences of different granule sizes and to prepare procedures on rational clinical usage of rhubarb based on chemical equivalence.</p><p><b>METHOD</b>The effects of particle size, extract solvent, extract time and repeat times, and pre-extract or pro-extract of rhubarb on the extract amounts of the anthraquinones (AQs) were compared.</p><p><b>RESULT</b>The different prepare procedures investigated in the paper revealed significant influence on the extract amounts of the AQs and those extracts were not chemical equivalent. Ethanol extracted more AQs than water did, when other conditions were same. When extracted with water, the rhubarb of piece size 0.8-1.2 cm could extract relatively high amount of AQs nearly equal to superfine grinded powders, and the former was cheap. The water extraction of AQs showed an increasing trend with the extraction time extended. And pro-extract manner with water could extract more AQs than pre-extract manner with a extraction time of 30, 60 min. The water extraction of AQs repeated two times exceeded half of the amount of totally six times. When extracted with ethanol, the rhubarb of fine powders could extract relatively high amount of AQs nearly equal to superfine grinded powders. And pre-extract manner with ethanol could extract more AQs than pro-extract manner. The ethanol extraction of AQs increased in 30 min and then increased slower. The ethanol extraction of AQs repeated two times exceeded 70% of the amount of totally six times. So, the optimal conditions for water extraction rhubarb were pro-extract, two times repeated and 30 min per time; and the optimal conditions for ethanol extract were pre-extract, two times repeated and 30 min per time.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The different prepare procedures showed significant influence on the extraction of rhubarb AQs. There is great need to establish a good usage practice (GUP) for Chinese Materia Medica to maintain rational clinical usage.</p>
Subject(s)
Anthraquinones , Chemistry , Rheum , ChemistryABSTRACT
Objective To establish an objective method for evaluating the intrinsic characteristics between cold and hot nature of Chinese materia medica(CMM)through the different effects of Mahuang decoction(MHD)and Maxing Shigan decoction(MSD)on animal temperature tropism.Methods The equipment with cold/hot pads was used to investigate the variety ofthe temperature tropism between two groups of mice treated by MHD and MSD,respectively.Meanwhile,the activities ofadenosine triphosphatase(ATPase),superoxide dismutase,succinate dehydrogenase,and malondialdehyde were measured.Results After treated by MHD,the macroscopic behavioral index of remaining rate on warm pad(40 ℃)of mice decreasedsignificantly(P < 0.05),suggesting the enhancement of cold tropism,meanwhile,the internal indices of ATPase activity and oxygen consuming volume increased significantly(P < 0.05),suggesting the enhancement of energy metabolism.On theother hand,the above-mentioned indices in MSD group changed on the inverse way.Conclusion The relative drug natureof MHD and MSD revealed in this study is consistent with the theoretical prognostication or definition.It indicates that theinternal cold and hot nature of CMM could be reflected in ethological way on the changes of animal temperature tropismwhich might be internally regulated by body energy metabolism.
ABSTRACT
The differences of 34 rhubarb samples collected on the market and at producing area were investigated by chemical analysis on the contents of anthraquinones and chromatographic fingerprints, in order to assess the rationality of the commercial specification of rhubarb. The results indicated that the commercial specification of rhubarb was not correlated to the contents of anthraquinones as well as the price. The chromatographic fingerprints of rhubarb samples from different producing area were dissimilar, while the commercial specifications were difficult to be separated. Generally, the rhubarb samples produced in famous-region contained more anthraquinones. This demonstrated rationality on the traditional records of the famous-region of rhubarb from a chemical view. In this study, it was firstly reported that rhubarb could be categorized into two types, chrysophanol-type and rhein-type, based on the proportion of the two constituents in the total anthraquinones after acid hydrohysis. It was found that the rhubarb samples of rhein-type were mostly produced in famous-regions, such as Qinghai, Xizang, West Sichuan and Gansu. The literatures reported that rhein was superior to chrysophanol at many pharmacological effects and pharmacokinetic properties. Hence, we primarily considered that rhein-type rhubarb might be high-quality. These results were helpful to improve the commercial specification of rhubarb from a view of chemical information.
Subject(s)
China , Drugs, Chinese Herbal , Quality Control , Rheum , ChemistryABSTRACT
Through our pre-investigation and literature analysis, it was found that rhubarb could be categorized into two types, chrysophanol-type and rhein-type, based on the proportion of the two constituents in the total content of anthraquinones after acid hydrolysis. In this paper, the antimicrobial activities of chrysophanol-type and rhein-type rhubarbs against Staphylococcus aureus were compared with microcalorimetric analysis, in order to illustrate the bioactive differentiability between the two chemotypes. For the aim to display the distinction of chrysophanol and rhein percentage in total anthraquinones, the sampling volume was regulated to make the total anthraquinones equivalent, thus, the antimicrobial difference was only attributed to the difference of chemotypes. The results indicated that the antimicrobial difference between the two chemotypes was confirmable labeled at the biothermokinetic parameters of S. aureus growth affected by the rhubarb samples. The growth rate constant (k1) of the first exponential phase for the growth of S. aureus affected by the rhein-type rhubarb was significantly lower than that of chrysophanol-type (P<0.01), which suggested stronger antimicrobial activity of rhein-type rhubarb than that of chrysophanol-type. However, the antimicrobial activities of rhein-type rhubarbs were not positively correlated to the contents of rhein. It suggested that the antimicrobial activity of rhubarb might be related to some unknown components which were of same accumulating pattern of rhein. The findings in present study provided some experimental evidence on categorizing rhubarb into two chemotypes through the difference of antimicrobial activity on S. aureus by microcalorimetric analysis and, further, offered references to revision of the commercial specification of rhubarb from chemical view.