Cheng Qu

Chemical Analysis of the Herbal Medicine Salviae miltiorrhizae Radix et Rhizoma (Danshen)

Radix Salviae miltiorrhizae et Rhizoma, known as Danshen in China, is one of the most popular traditional Chinese medicines. Recently, there has been increasing scientific attention on Danshen for its remarkable bioactivities, such as promoting blood circulation, removing blood stasis, and clearing away heat. This review summarized the advances in chemical analysis of Danshen and its preparations since 2009. Representative established methods were reviewed, including spectroscopy, thin layer chromatography, gas chromatography, liquid chromatography (LC), liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS), capillary electrophoresis, electrochemistry, and bioanalysis. Especially the analysis of polysaccharides in Danshen was discussed for the first time. Some proposals were also put forward to benefit quality control of Danshen.

Urine and plasma metabonomics coupled with UHPLC-QTOF/MS and multivariate data analysis on potential biomarkers in anemia and hematinic effects of herb pair Gui-Hong.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE The compatibility of Angelicae Sinensis Radix (Danggui) and Carthami Flos (Honghua), a famous herb pair Gui-Hong, can produce synergistic and complementary hematinic effects. Our previous studies have indicated that Gui-Hong has therapeutic potential treatment in hemolytic and aplastic anemia (HAA). The present study aimed to investigate the hematinic effects of Danggui, Honghua and Gui-Hong on HAA rats induced by acetyl phenylhydrazine (APH) and cyclophosphamide (CP) and to explore the underlying hematinic regulation mechanisms. MATERIALS AND METHODS Rats were divided into 5 groups, and drugs were administered by oral gavage one time each day for continuous 7 days from the experiment began. Urine and plasma were analyzed by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC-QTOF/MS). Partial least-squares discriminate analysis (PLS-DA) models were built to evaluate the therapeutic effects of Danggui, Honghua and Gui-Hong. Pearson correlation matrix analysis method was used to discover the correlations between potential biomarkers and biochemical indicators of HAA rats. RESULTS Seven potential biomarkers contribute to the separation of model group and control group were tentatively identified. The levels of l-kynurenine, phenylalanine, nicotinic acid and sphingosine increased significantly (P<0.05) in HAA rats, while the levels of l-isoleucine, l-tyrosine and serotonin decreased significantly (P<0.05) in comparison with control rats. Those endogenous metabolites were chiefly involved in phenylalanine, tyrosine and tryptophan biosynthesis, valine, leucine and isoleucine biosynthesis, tryptophan metabolism and tyrosine metabolism. The metabolic deviations could be regulated closer to normal level after Danggui, Honghua and Gui-Hong intervention. In term of hematinic effects, Gui-Hong was the most effective as shown by the relative distance in PLS-DA score plots and relative intensity of potential biomarkers. The result reflected the synergic action between Danggui and Honghua. The above results were found to be reasonable in explaining the hematinic effects mechanism of Gui-Hong. CONCLUSIONS The results of routine blood, urinary metabolic pattern and plasma metabolic pattern show the Danggui, Honghua and Gui-Hong groups are moving toward the control group and the HAA was being prevented and alleviated. The effect of Gui-Hong group is more remarkable than Danggui and Honghua groups. Some potential biomarkers like l-kynurenine, phenylalanine, l-isoleucine, l-tyrosine, serotonin, nicotinic acid and sphingosine have been found and identified. The work shows that the metabonomics method is a promising tool in the efficacy and mechanism research of traditional Chinese medicines.

UFLC-Q-TOF/MS based screening and identification of the metabolites in plasma, bile, urine and feces of normal and blood stasis rats after oral administration of hydroxysafflor yellow A.

The dried flower of Carthamus tinctorius L. (honghua) is a widely used traditional Chinese medicine in clinics to treat coronary heart disease, hypertension, and cerebrovascular disease due to its functions of ameliorating circulation and removing blood stasis. Hydroxysafflor yellow A (HSYA) is an active marker component of honghua. In this paper, ultra-flow liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole-time-of-flight mass-spectrometry (UFLC-Q-TOF/MS) was established and successfully applied to the detection and identification of the metabolites in bile, urine, plasma and feces samples of normal and model rats with orally administrated HSYA. A total of 8 metabolites were observed in normal rats, while 7 metabolites were detected in model rats. The distribution of metabolites in the plasma, bile, urine and feces of normal and model rats had obvious differences. The major in vivo metabolic pathways for HSYA included hydroxylation, hydroxylation+methylation, acetylation and glucuronidation, and there were also dehydration, hydrogenation, hydration, and hydroxylation+glucuronidation. All of these metabolites were reported for the first time, and these results are valuable and important for the understanding of the metabolic process and therapeutic mechanism of HSYA and some other pigments in honghua.

Metabolic profile of anhydrosafflor yellow B in rats by ultra-fast liquid chromatography/quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry.

Anhydrosafflor yellow B (AHSYB) is one of the major active water-soluble pigments from Carthamus tinctorius, which has been found to inhibit ADP-induced platelet aggregation and possess significant antioxidant activity. However, the metabolic fate of AHSYB in vivo remains unknown. In order to explore whether AHSYB is extensively metabolized, the metabolites of AHSYB in plasma, urine, bile, and feces samples after intravenous administration to the rats were investigated by ultra-fast liquid chromatography/quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UFLC/Qq-TOF-MS/MS) combined with Metabolitepilot™ software. In total, AHSYB and 22 metabolites including both phase I and phase II metabolism processes were found and tentatively identified from the bio-samples. The metabolic pathways were involved in oxidation, reduction, hydroxylation, methylation, dimethylation, O-acetylation, hydrolyzation, sulfation, glucuronidaton, glutathionation and combination with glucose. The results showed that the renal and biliary routes play an important role in the clearance and excretion of AHSYB as well as hepatocyte metabolism. All of these results were reported for the first time and would contribute to a further understanding of the in vivo intermediated processes and metabolic mechanism of AHSYB and its analogs.

Design, Synthesis, and In Vitro Antiplatelet Aggregation Activities of Ferulic Acid Derivatives

In order to discover new compounds with antiplatelet aggregation activities, some ferulic acid (FA) derivatives were designed and synthesized. The in vitro antiplatelet aggregation activities of these compounds were assessed by turbidimetric test. The results showed that the target compound 7f had potent antiplatelet aggregation activity with its IC50 27.6 μmol/L, and 7f can be regarded as a novel potent antiplatelet aggregation candidate.

Hierarchical identification of bioactive components in a medicinal herb by preparative high-performance liquid chromatography and selective knock-out strategy

&NA; A novel and generally applicable approach was established to hierarchically identify the bioactive components of a medicinal herb by preparative high‐performance liquid chromatography (prep‐HPLC) and a selective knock‐out strategy. In this study, the targeted components of an herbal medicine were separated and knocked out using prep‐HPLC. Subsequently, the contributions of the different target components to the overall effect of the medicinal herb were comparatively evaluated and differentiated by a heat map and a 3D score plot. This approach was successfully applied to investigate the bioactive constituents of safflower. The contributions of 11 components to the overall effect of safflower were as follows: anhydrosafflor yellow B (10) > 6‐hydroxykaempferol 3,6‐di‐O‐&bgr;‐D‐glucoside (8) > hydroxysafflor yellow A (3) > kaempferol 3‐O‐&bgr;‐rutinoside (11) > 6‐hydroxykaempferol 3‐O‐&bgr;‐rutinoside (9) > 6‐hydroxykaempferol 3,6‐di‐O‐&bgr;‐D‐glucoside‐7‐O‐&bgr;‐D‐glucuronide (4) > 6‐hydroxyapigenin 6‐O‐&bgr;‐D‐glucoside‐7‐O‐&bgr;‐D‐glucuronide (6) > cytidine (1) > 6‐hydroxykaempferol 3‐O‐&bgr;‐rutinoside‐6‐O‐&bgr;‐D‐glucoside (7) > 6‐hydroxykaempferol 3,6,7‐tri‐O‐&bgr;‐D‐glucoside (5) > adenosine (2). These results demonstrate that quinochalcone C‐glycosides (3 and 10) and some flavonoid glycosides containing C7‐OH (such as 8, 9 and 11) made a greater contribution to the overall effect of safflower than the other components that were knocked out. The results provided an important reference for improving quality control and further development of safflower products. And this approach should also be useful for investigating the bioactive constituents of other medicinal herbs. Graphical abstract Figure. No caption available. HighlightsAn approach was established for differentiating effect contribution of herbal components.Knock‐out of herbal components was accomplished by using prep‐HPLC.A heat map and a 3D score plot were used.This approach was successfully applied for investigating the safflower.

Development and validation of a UFLC–MS/MS method for the determination of anhydrosafflor yellow B in rat plasma and its application to pharmacokinetic study

A sensitive ultrafast liquid chromatography coupled with triple quadrupole mass spectrometric (UFLC-MS/MS) method for the quantification of anhydrosafflor yellow B (AHSYB), a major active water-soluble pigment from Carthamus tinctorius, in rat plasma has been developed and validated. Sample preparation was achieved by protein precipitation of plasma with four volumes of methanol. Rutin was used as the internal standard (IS). The analytes were separated using a C18 column with an 8min gradient elution, followed by mass spectrometric detection using negative electrospray ionization (ESI(-)) in multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode. The method was linear in the concentration range of 25-10,000ng/mL for AHSYB. Intra-day and inter-day precision variation was less than 6.5%. The relative error of accuracy was within ±9.4%. The mean recovery of AHSYB was higher than 70.9%. The established method was successfully applied to the pharmacokinetic study after intravenous (2.5mg/kg) and oral (30mg/kg) dosing of AHSYB in normal rats. And the pharmacokinetic properties of AHSYB in rats with acute blood stasis and the differences between normal and acute blood stasis syndrome rats were also investigated. The results showed that the compound was poorly absorbed (∼0.3%) and the AUC0-t, AUC0-∞ and F were all significantly lower (P<0.05) in acute blood stasis syndrome rats, suggesting that disease condition may alter the body metabolism by enhancing metabolite enzyme activity.

A New Ceramide from the Florets of Carthamus tinctorius

A new ceramide, rel-(3S,4S,5S)-3-[(2S)-2-hydroxyheneicosanoylamino]-4-hydroxy-5-[(4Z)-tetradecan-4-ene]-2,3,4,5-tetrahydrofuran (1), was isolated from the florets of Carthamus tinctorius along with two compounds, 10,12-nonacosanedione (2) and apigenin-7-O-β-apiofuranosyl-6,8-di-C-β-glucopyranoside (3), for the first time. Their structures were elucidated by means of spectral techniques including MS and 1D/2D NMR.