Methodological study on quality evaluation of rhubarb based on purgative bioassay / 中国中药杂志

ABSTRACT

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To establish a method suitable to determine the purgative biopotency of rhubarb and construct a new quality evaluation pattern of rhubarb.</p><p><b>METHOD</b>A series of factors such as observation index (mass of feces in 10 hours), animal strain (ICR mice), sex (male) and the dose of diphenoxylate complex (50 mg x kg(-1)) was investigated and fixed. The purgative biopotency as well as anthraquinone determination was used to evaluate the quality of different rhubarb samples.</p><p><b>RESULT</b>There wasn't a good linear relationship between the purgative biopotency and content of anthraquinone. The quality difference of rhubarb samples could be well characterized by combination of purgative biopotency determination and anthraquinone determination.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The purgative biopotency determination can be used in quality control and evaluation of rhubarb.</p>