ABSTRACT
Aim Toinvestigatetheeffectofhigh,me-dium and low doses of Mahuang decoction on the re-lease amount of rat hippocampal neural transmitter (Glu,Gly,Asp,GABA),then compare Mahuang de-contion with ephedra alkaloids and ephedra.Methods Ratswererandomlydividedinto6groupsandgiven orally with Mahuang decoction of high dose (calculated by ephedra 4 g·kg-1 ),medium dose (calculated by ephedra 2 g·kg-1 ),low dose (calculated by ephedra 1 g · kg-1 ),ephedra (calculated by ephedra 2 g · kg-1 ),ephedra alkaloids (ephedrine 7 mg · kg-1 , pseudoephedrine 2. 4 mg · kg-1 , methylephedrine 1. 12 mg · kg-1 )and blank control group.Samples were obtained from the hippocampus of conscious rat by microdialysis sampling technique.The content of ami-no acid neurotransmitters in dialysates was detected u-sing the established HPLC-ECD with OPA pre-column derivationmethod.Results Fouraminoacidneuro-transmitters could be well separated in 28 min.High, medium and low doses of Mahuang decoction,ephedra and ephedra alkaloids significantly increased the con-tent of these four amino acid neurotransmitters,com-pared with blank control group (P<0. 05 ).Ephedra alkaloids significantly reduced the levels of inhibitoryamino acid neurotransmitters GABA and Gly in 90 min,compared with the medium dose of Mahuang de-coction.Excitatory neurotransmitters of ASP and Glu in hippocampus showed the trend of increase first and then decrease after oral administration of Mahuang de-coction and ephedra. The levels of Glu and Asp reached peaks from 90 min to 120 min after treatment with Mahuang decoction,and also increased along with dose increase of Mahuang decoction.In comparison with the medium dose of Mahuang decoction group,the level of Glu reached peak at 90 min and 150 min in ephedra alkaloids group and ephedra group respective-ly,and the content of Glu significantly increased at peaktime.Conclusions Increasedcontentofexcita-tory amino acid neurotransmitters (Asp and Glu ) shows positive correlation with the dose of Mahuang de-coction.Other components in Mahuang decoction in-hibits the up-regulation effect of ephedra and ephedra alkaloids on Glu,and promotes the up-regulation effect of ephedra alkaloids on GABA and Gly.
ABSTRACT
With the mutual communication and penetration of traditional Chinese medicine and modem medicine,the combination of traditional Chinese and western medicine is common in clinical practice.However,since western-style doctor is usually lack of traditional Chinese medicine theory knowledge,many problems exist in the combination of Chinese and western medicine.The problem that Chinese medicine containing ephedra alkaloids in combination with western medicine in pediatric medicine is especially serious.Because of the complexity of the children's drugs,improper use of the ephedra alkaloids is prone to adverse reactions.A comprehensive analysis of drugs containing ephedra alkaloids existing in the pediatric clinical application is performed,and in order to provide guidance for clinical rational drug use.
ABSTRACT
Aims Tocomparethepharmacokineticsof ephedra alkaloids,cinnamic acid and cinnamic alcohol in Ephedrae, Cinnamomi and Ephedrae-Cinnamomi herb couple through UPLC-MS/MS in rats respective-ly,and to investigate the effect of combination on phys-iologicaldisposition.Methods Plasmasampleswere collected at different times after oral administration of Ephedrae,Cinnamomi and Ephedrae-Cinnamomi herb couple extracts.The concentrations of ephedra alka-loids,cinnamic acid and cinnamic alcohol in plasma samples were determined by UPLC-MS/MS.DAS 3. 0 was used to calculate pharmacokinetic parameters.The differences of samples in two groups were conducted with univariate statistical analysis using SPSS 13. 0. Results ComparedwithEphedraegroup,theCmaxof norephedrine hydrochloride, norpseudoephedrine hydrochloride,ephedrine hydrochloride,pseudoephed-rine hydrochloride,and methylephedrine hydrochloride in Ephedrae-Cinnamomi herb couple group were signif-icantly greater (P<0. 05 );the AUC0-t of norpseudo-ephedrine hydrochloride was significantly greater (P<0. 05 );the MRT0-t of norephedrine hydrochloride, phedrine hydrochloride, pseudoephedrine hydrochlo-ride,and methylephedrine hydrochloride were signifi-cantly less (P <0. 05 );the T1/2z of norephedrine hydrochloride,phedrine hydrochloride,and methyl-ephedrine hydrochloride were significantly less (P <0. 05 ).The AUC0-t and MRT0-t of cinnamic acid and cinnamic alcohol were significantly greater than those inCinnamomigroup(P<0.05).Conclusion The combination of Ephedrae and Cinnamomi improves the absorption concentration of five ephedra alkaloids, Slows down the elimination of norephedrine hydrochlo-ride,phedrine hydrochloride,pseudoephedrine hydro-chloride,and methylephedrine hydrochloride,and in-creases the bioavailability of cinnamic acid and cin-namic alcohol.
ABSTRACT
Objective To isolate endophytic fungi from the rare medicinal plants ephedra, detect the production of ephedrine alkaloids, and explore the optimum fermentation conditions.Methods The endophytic fungi were isolated from the herbaceous stems treated.The ephedrine alkaloids were preliminarily detected by Dragendorff's reagent.The fungi strains producing ephedrine alkaloids were screened by HPLC method with reference substance of ephedrine, pseudoephedrine and methephedrine.After the optimum carbon source and nitrogen source were determined with total ephedrine alkaloids as evaluation indicators by HPLC, the orthogonal test of L16 (45) was designed to investigate five levels of carbon source amount, nitrogen source amount, pH value, temperature, fermentation time.Results The ephedra herbaceous stems endophytic fungus-Es2 mycelium extract after fermentation contained ephedrine, pseudoephedrine and methephedrine.Es3 mycelium extract containing pseudoephedrine after fermentation.Lactose and ammonium sulfate were as the most suitable carbon source and nitrogen source of Es2 fermentation to produce ephedrine alkaloids.Es produced the highest yield of ephedra alkaloids when the carbon source 30 g/L, nitrogen source 4 g/L, pH5.0, temperature 30℃, fermented for 8 days.Conclusion The ephedrine alkaloids of industrial production could be realized by microorganism fermentation method, which has very important significance to alleviate the ephedrine market demand pressure on the environment.