Provisional biopharmaceutical classification of some common herbs used in Western medicine.

The aim of this study was to classify some markers of common herbs used in Western medicine according to the Biopharmaceutical Classification System (BCS). The BCS is a scientific approach to classify drug substances based upon their intestinal permeability and their solubility, at the highest single dose used, within the physiologically relevant pH ranges. Known marker components of twelve herbs were chosen from the USP Dietary Supplement Compendium Monographs. Different BCS parameters such as intestinal permeability (P(eff)) and solubility (C(s)) were predicted using the ADMET Predictor, which is a software program to estimate biopharmaceutical relevant molecular descriptors. The dose number (D0) was calculated when information from the literature was available to identify an upper dose for individual markers. In these cases the herbs were classified according to the traditional BCS parameters using P(eff) and D0. When no upper dose could be determined, then the amount of a marker that is just soluble in 250 mL of water was calculated. This value, M(x), defines when a marker is changing from highly soluble to poorly soluble according to BCS criteria. This biopharmaceutically relevant value can be a useful tool for marker selection. The present study showed that a provisional BCS classification of herbs is possible but some special considerations need to be included into the classification strategy. The BCS classification can be used to choose appropriate quality control tests for products containing these markers. A provisional BCS classification of twelve common herbs and their 35 marker compounds is presented.

Role of mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway in acetylcholine-mediated in vitro relaxation of rat pulmonary artery.

This study was designed to characterise the muscarinic receptor subtype responsible for acetylcholine-mediated in vitro pulmonary artery relaxation in rats and the importance of the presence of neostigmine (an anti-cholinesterase) during receptor characterisation. Cumulative administration of acetylcholine elicited concentration-dependent relaxation of phenylephrine (1 microM) precontracted preparations. Inclusion of neostigmine (10 microM) caused a parallel leftward shift with an increase of the pD(2) value (7.09 vs. 6.43) of the concentration-response curve of acetylcholine. The magnitude of maximum relaxation, however, was not affected. Using a range of conventional muscarinic receptor antagonists (atropine, pirenzepine, methoctramine, p-FHHSiD and tropicamide) and the highly selective Green Mamba muscarinic toxins (MT-3 and MT-7), it was found that muscarinic M(3) receptors are probably responsible for endothelium-dependent relaxation of the pulmonary artery upon acetylcholine challenge. Preincubation with N(G)-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME, 20 microM, a nitric oxide synthase inhibitor), but not N(G)-nitro-D-arginine methyl ester (D-NAME, 20 microM), abolished acetylcholine-elicited relaxation. Moreover, 6-anilino-5,8-quinolinedione (LY 83583, 1 microM) and methylene blue (1 microM) (both are guanylate cyclase inhibitors) markedly attenuated acetylcholine-elicited relaxation. However, the presence of indomethacin (3 microM, a cyclo-oxygenase inhibitor), (-)-perillic acid (30 microM, a p21(ras) blocker), 2-[2'-amino-3'-methoxy-phenyl]-oxana-phthalen-4-one (PD 98059) (10 microM, a p42/p44 mitogen-activated protein kinase inhibitor), 4-(4-fluorophenyl)-2-(4-methylsulfinylphenyl)-5-(4-pyridyl)1H-imidazole (SB 203580) (1 microM, a p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase blocker), wortmannin (500 nM, a phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase inhibitor) and genistein (10 microM, a tyrosine kinase blocker) failed to alter acetylcholine-provoked pulmonary arterial relaxation. These results suggest that acetylcholine caused pulmonary arterial relaxation through the activation of muscarinic M(3) receptors in the endothelium. Moreover, the p21(ras)/mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway seems to play no role in mediating acetylcholine-elicited relaxation.