Xingxiong injection(XXI) is a widely used Chinese herbal formula prepared by the folium ginkgo extract and ligustrazine for the treatment of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. Compared with the pharmacological studies, chemical analysis and quality control studies on this formula are relatively limited. In the present study, a high performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry(HPLC-QTOF MS) method was applied to comprehensive analysis of constituents in XXI. According to the fragmentation rules and previous reports, thirty ginkgo flavonoids, four ginkgo terpene lactones, and one alkaloid were identified. A high performance liquid chromatography coupled with triple quadrupole mass spectrometry(HPLC-QQQ MS) method was then applied to quantify ten major constituents in XXI. The method validation results indicated that the developed method had desirable specificity, linearity, precision and accuracy. The total contents of ginkgo flavonoids were about 22.05-25.51 μg·mL-1 and the ginkgo terpene lactones amounts were about 4.41-8.70 μg·m L-1 in six batches of XXI samples, respectively. Furthermore, cosine ratio algorithm and distance measurements were employed to evaluate the similarity of XXI samples, and the results demonstrated a high-quality consistency. This work could provide comprehensive information on the quality control of Xingxiong injection, which be helpful in the establishment of a rational quality control standard.
The present study was designed to characterize the chemical constituents of Guge Fengtong Tablet(GGFTT).Based on the chromatographic retention behavior,fragmentation pathways of chemical components and the published literatures,a diagnostic ion filtering strategy with electrospray ionization quadrupole time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry(HPLC-ESI-Q-TOF/MS) was established to identify the multiple bioactive constituents of GGFTT.The rapid identification of forty-seven components,including 18 phenolic acids,8 saponins,14 gingerol-related compounds,and 7 diarylhepatonoids,was accomplished using this newly developed method.The coupling of HPLC-ESI-Q-TOF/MS with the diagnostic ion filtering strategy was useful and efficient for the in-depth structural elucidation of chemical compounds of GGFTT.
In the present study, we developed and validated a rapid analytical method using high performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole time of flight mass spectrometry(HPLC-Q-TOF/MS) to investigate the metabolic profile of Guge Fengtong tablet(GGFTT), a traditional Chinese medicine. The urine and bile samples were collected with 24 h after oral administration of GGFTT. A total of 34 compounds, including 11 parent compounds and 23 metabolites were unambiguously or tentatively identified. Our results indicated that glucuronidation, oxidation and methylation were the major metabolic pathways of the constituents in GGFTT. In addition, the results of this work also demonstrated the feasibility of HPLC-ESI-Q-TOF/MS for reliable characterization of the in vivo metabolites from herbal preparations.
Rheumatoid arthritis(RA) is the most common inflammatory arthritis and a major cause of disability. Presently, the clinical therapeutic medicines for inflammatory and arthritic diseases are unsatisfactory due to severe adverse effects or ineffectiveness. The Guge Fengtong formula(GGFT), containing the standardized extracts of Dioscoreae Nipponicae Rhizoma, Spatholobi Caulis, and Zingiberis Rhizoma, has long been used for RA treatment in China. However, the detailed anti-inflammatory and anti-arthritic activity of GGFT has not been reported so far. In the present work, we aimed to evaluate the anti-inflammatory and anti-arthritic effects of GGFT using three in vivo animal models and tried to uncover the underlying mechanism of action in RAW 264.7 macrophages. The obtained results indicated that GGFT significantly attenuated ear edema, decreased carrageenan-induced paw edema, reduced the arthritis score, and reversed the weight loss of the complete Freund's adjuvant(CFA)-injected rats. Additionally, decrease in synovial inflammatory infiltration and synovial lining hyperplasia in the joints and decline of inflammatory factors(TNF-α and IL-1β) in the serum were observed in the GGFT-treated rats. In lipopolysaccharide-activated RAW264.7 macrophages, GGFT reduced the production of NO, PGE2, and IL-6 and inhibited the expression of i NOS, COX-2, and NF-κB. Our results demonstrated that GGFT possessed considerable anti-inflammatory activity and had potential therapeutic effects on adjuvant induced arthritis in rats, providing experimental evidences for its application in the treatment of RA and other inflammatory diseases.
