ABSTRACT
Chronic constipation is a highly debilitating condition, affecting a significant proportion of the commu-nity. Rhei Radix et Rhizoma (rhubarb) is one of the important herbal drugs used in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) for treating constipation which includes four groups of main active components such as free anthraquinone, conjunc-tive anthraquinone, rhubarb tannin, and rhubarb polysaccharides. However, which one is response for the laxative effect of rhubarb is unknown. Therefore, we proposed a strategy for the effect-guided quality control of TCM based on disease. The effective material for laxative effect of rhubarb was firstly screened based on the constipation model. And different production locations were investigated. Then, the processing was optimized to set up a quality control of rhubarb. It was found that the bioactive component was the conjunctive anthraquinone for the laxative effect. And the raw herb from Liangshan had the best quality compared with those from Pingwu and Beichuan in Sichuan Prov-ince, China. The extraction ethanol volumes to substrate ratio of 10.34, extraction time of 24.25 min and extraction number of 4 were the best conditions for the extraction of conjunctive anthraquinone. Under the optimized condi-tions, the maximum production was 5.455 mg·g-1. This extraction procedure was used as quality control of rhubarb in the treatment of constipation.