ABSTRACT
The fried method with suet oil, which can strengthen the effect of Epimedii Folium in warming kidney and enhancing yang, has been widely used in the processing of Epimedii Folium in traditional Chinese medicine. In this paper, we adopted hydrocortisone-induced kidney-yang deficiency rat models, and took physical signs, serum testosterone, corticosterone levels and histopathological examination of rats as indictors to systematically study the synergistic effect of suet oil in warming kidney and enhancing yang of fried Epimedii Folium in the dosage form of self-assembled micelles. Drugs were given orally, and compared with model group, indicating normal physical signs and biochemical indicators, and significant alleviation in disorder of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal-thymus (HPAT) axis suppression. All these experimental results indicated that both Epimedium flavonoids and its self-assembled micelles, especially the processed self-assembled micelles of Epimedii Folium, showed the significant effects in warming kidney and enhancing yang, which might be correlated with the regulation of the disorder of HPAT axis suppression and the improvement of major pathological conditions of testicular gonadal tissues. This discovery can further reveal the synergistic effect and mechanism of processing material suet oil on Epimedii Folium.