ABSTRACT
Preformulation research, an in-depth research for pharmacological and pharmaceutical properties of raw materials, has been widely used in the field of chemical drugs. Although traditional Chinese medicine components (TCMCs) are the basic units in Chinese medicine preparation, the properties characterization of these components is still in an exploratory stage, because empiricism and blindness are still present in the development of the Chinese medicine preparations. TCMCs, a complex multi-component system, is very difficult to be analyzed in details. Herein, a research idea is put forward for the characterization of overall properties by using representative compositions. Firstly, various composition groups were set up for screening the representative components by in vitro and in vivo efficacy evaluation according to the original proportion. Then the equilibrium solubility, oil/water (O/W) partition coefficient and apparent permeability coefficient of the representative components were detected. Subsequently, the similarity assessment and discrete analysis were performed for the subdivision of TCMCs. The overall properties of TCMCs were fitted by mass fraction or efficacy contribution of each representative component, so as to characterize the overall properties of components/sub-components.