Content determination of ten flavonoids and alkaloids in Gleditsiae Sinensis Fructus, Gleditsiae Fructus Abnormalis, and Gleditsiae Spina / 中国中药杂志

To study the quality control of three traditional Chinese medicines derived from Gleditsia sinensis [Gleditsiae Sinensis Fructus(GSF), Gleditsiae Fructus Abnormalis(GFA), and Gleditsiae Spina(GS)], this paper established a multiple reaction monitoring(MRM) approach based on ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-triple quadrupole-linear ion-trap mass spectrometry(UHPLC-Q-Trap-MS). Using an ACQUITY UPLC BEH C_(18) column(2.1 mm × 100 mm, 1.7 μm), gradient elution was performed at 40 ℃ with water containing 0.1% formic acid-acetonitrile as the mobile phase running at 0.3 mL·min~(-1), and the separation and content determination of ten chemical constituents(e.g., saikachinoside A, locustoside A, orientin, taxifolin, vitexin, isoquercitrin, luteolin, quercitrin, quercetin, and apigenin) in GSF, GFA, and GS were enabled within 31 min. The established method could quickly and efficiently determine the content of ten chemical constituents in GSF, GFA, and GS. All constituents showed good linearity(r>0.995), and the average recovery rate was 94.09%-110.9%. The results showed that, the content of two alkaloids in GSF(2.03-834.75 μg·g~(-1)) was higher than that in GFA(0.03-10.41 μg·g~(-1)) and GS(0.04-13.66 μg·g~(-1)), while the content of eight flavonoids in GS(0.54-2.38 mg·g~(-1)) was higher than that in GSF(0.08-0.29 mg·g~(-1)) and GFA(0.15-0.32 mg·g~(-1)). These results provide references for the quality control of G. sinensis-derived TCMs.

Predictive analysis of quality markers of Coptidis Rhizoma based on network pharmacology and multivariate statistical analysis / 中国中药杂志

Coptidis Rhizoma, as a bulk medicinal material, is in great demand in clinical practice. Its quality is uneven in the market due to the mixture of genuine, counterfeit and adulterants. Therefore, it is particularly important to establish a quality control system for Coptidis Rhizoma. Based on the concept of Chinese medicine quality marker(Q-marker), the potential quality markers of Coptidis Rhizoma were analyzed and predicted from the perspective of chemistry and pharmacology. The sources of the Q-markers of Coptidis Rhizoma were identified by literature retrieval. The potential Q-markers were then screened through the visualization of the "components-targets-pathways" network. High performance liquid chromatography(HPLC) was used to establish a multi-indicator qualitative and quantitative control method featuring fingerprints for 10 batches of Coptidis Rhizoma. A supervised mode of orthogonality partial least squares method-discriminant analysis(OPLS-DA) was used to screen the main marker components that caused differences between groups. The literature review results showed that the alkaloids were the main source of Coptidis Rhizoma Q-markers.The fingerprints of 13 common peaks were successfully established, and berberine, palmatine, berberine and epiberberine were selected as Q-markers of Coptidis Rhizoma, and their contents were determined.Based on the concept of the Q-marker of traditional Chinese medicine, the four components can be selected as the Q-marker of Coptidis Rhizoma after comprehensive consideration. The results of this study are not only conducive to the quality evaluation of Coptidis Rhizoma on the market, but also provide a reference for the overall quality control of Coptidis Rhizoma and lay foundation for the future exploration of the mechanism of Coptidis Rhizoma.

Corrigendum to “Monitoring unbound warfarin in drug combination therapy by pharmacokinetics and fluorospectrometry” Chinese Herbal Medicines 11 (2019) 92–97 (Chinese Herbal Medicines (2019) 11(1) (92–97), (S167463841830145X), (10.1016/j.chmed.2018.10.002)) / 中草药·英文版

When this paper was first published the following ethical statement was omitted in error: Animal experiments were conducted in accordance with the guidelines of Laboratory Animal Ethics Committee of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM-LAEC2019071). The authors would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused. DOI of original article: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chmed.2018.10.002

Simultaneous Determination of Pinoresinol Di-glucopyranoside and Pinoresinol Glucoside in Rat Plasma by HPLC-tandem MS/MS for Pharmacokinetic Study / 中草药·英文版

Objective Pinoresinol di-glucopyranoside (PDG) is one of the main active lignans of Eucommiae Cortex considered to be a high-quality antihypertensive drug. In this study the pharmacokinetic process of PDG and its primary in vivo metabolite pinoresinol glucoside (PG) in the portal and jugular vein were surveyed and evaluated simultaneously. Methods A sensitive high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with tandem quadruple mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) method and sample preparation protocol were developed and validated in method of selectivity, sensitivity, precision, stability, and extraction recovery for the simultaneous determination of PDG and its primary metabolite PG in rat plasma. The double intubation technique was used to simultaneously collect blood from common jugular vein and hepatic portal vein after single ig administration of PDG. Results Using this method, the quantification linearity ranges of PDG and PG in rat plasma were both 0.05-100 ng/mL. This method was successfully applied to the evaluation of the absolute oral bioavailability of PDG and determination of the pharmacokinetic properties of PDG and PG after ig administration of single dose in rats. The bioavailability of PDG at common jugular vein was 51.3% compared to that of 91.6% at hepatic portal vein. Conclusion We conclude that liver is the major conversion site of PDG to PG.

LC/MS/MS determination and pharmacokinetic studies of six compounds in rat plasma following oral administration of the single and combined extracts of Eucommia ulmoides and Dipsacus asperoides / 中国天然药物

AIM@#To establish and apply a new LC/MS/MS method for the simultaneous, quantitative determination of six ingredients, aucubin (AU), geniposide (GP), geniposidic acid (GPA), pinoresinol diglucoside (PDG), secologanin (SLG), and loganin (LG) in single and combined extracts of Eucommia ulmoides and Dipsacus asperoides.@*METHOD@#Using the LC/MS/MS-ESI(-)-MRM mode to detect the six compounds, chromatographic separation was achieved on an Agilent Eclipse plus C18 column, and the mobile phase consisted of solvent A (CH3CN) and solvent B (H2O containing 0.01% CH3COOH V/V).@*RESULTS@#This method was successfully applied to quantify the six compounds in rat plasma after oral administration, and showed good precision, accuracy, reproducibility, and linear regression (r(2)>0.99).@*CONCLUSION@#The results showed that following the use of the two medicinal plants, for AU and GP, the values of Cmax markedly increased, and the values of cmax markedly decreased. It was found that the compatibility of the medicinal plants might affect their pharmacokinetic properties of their constituents.

Chemical constituents of Dipsacus asper / 药学学报

To study the chemical constituents of Dipsacus asper, chromatographic methods such as D101 macroporous resin, silica gel, octadecylsilyl (ODS) column chromatographic techniques and preparative HPLC were used, and five compounds were isolated from 70% (v/v) ethanol extract of the plant. By using spectroscopic techniques including 1H NMR, 13C NMR, 1H-1H COSY, HSQC, HMBC and TOF-MS, the compounds were identified as 3beta-hydroxy-24-nor-urs-4 (23), 12-dien-28-oic acid (1), ursolic acid (2), oleanolic acid (3), 3-O-alpha-L-rhamnosyl(1 --> 3)-beta-D-glucopyranosyl (1 --> 3)-alpha-L-rhamnosyl (1 --> 2)-alpha-L-arabinopyranosyl hederagenin 28-O-beta-D-glucopyranosyl (1 --> 6)-beta-D-glucopyranosyl ester (4), 3-O-[beta-D-xylopyranosyl (1 --> 4)-beta-D-glucopyranosyl (1 --> 4)] [alpha-L-rhamnosyl(1 --> 3)]-beta-D-glucopyranosyl (1 --> 3)-alpha-L-rhamnosyl(1 --> 2)-alpha-L-arabinopyranosyl hederagenin (5), separately. Among them, 1 is a new compound, and 2 is isolated from this plant for the first time.