THE QUANTITATIVE COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS FOR MAIN BIO-ACTIVE COMPONENTS IN ANGELICA SINENSIS, LIGUSTICUM CHUANXIONG, AND THE HERB PAIR GUI-XIONG

Abstract

A comparative quantitative analysis of major bioactive components including three aromatic acids (chlorogenic acid, caffeic acid, and ferulic acid) and four phthalides (senkyunolide I, senkyunolide H, Z-ligustilide, and Z-butylidenephthalide) in Angelica sinensis (DG), Ligusticum chuanxiong (CX), and the herb pair “Gui-Xiong” with seven ratios and three preparation methods was carried out by a simple HPLC coupled with photodiode array detection (PAD). The aim was to evaluate the content changes of seven bioactive components, to reveal the compatibility rule of the herb pair Gui-Xiong, and to establish a material basis for interpreting pharmacological effect changes. The results showed that water extracts of Gui-Xiong could better increase the dissolution of aromatic acids and phthalides in comparison with a single herb. Additionally, the contents of total acids in ethanol and water-alcohol extracts of DG, Gui-Xiong, and CX were higher as the proportionality coefficient of CX increased. The contents of total phthalides in water extracts of Gui-Xiong were higher as the proportionality coefficient of CX increased, while the contents of total phthalides in ethanol and water-alcohol extracts of Gui-Xiong changed erratically. The same extract method caused the contents of total phthalides in DG, Gui-Xiong, and CX to be higher than the content of total acids. Additionally, some chemical correlations were tested with their pharmacological effects changed. These research results can be helpful to illustrate the drug interactions during the decoction process of herb pairs according to the quantity changes of these marker compounds.

Keywords:

• Angelica sinensis
• aromatic acids and phthalides
• herb pair
• high performance liquid chromatography
• Ligusticum chuanxiong
• quantitative analysis

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

This research was financially supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (30873235, 81274058), the 2009' Program for New Century Excellent Talents by the Ministry of Education (NCET-09-0163), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province, China (BK2008455), the Key Research Project in Basic Science of Jiangsu College and University (06KJA36022, 07KJA36024, 10KJA360039, 12KJA36002), and the 2009' Program for Excellent Scientific and Technological Innovation Team of Jiangsu Higher Education. This research was also financially supported by the Construction Project for the Jiangsu Engineering Center of Innovative Drug from Blood-conditioning TCM Formulae, and A Project Funded by the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (ysxk-2010). We are also pleased to thank Waters China Ltd. for technical support.

Notes

^a y is the peak area in UV chromatograms monitored at the absorption maximum for each reference compound, x is the compound amount injected.

^b LOD, limit of detection.

^c LOQ, limit of quantification.

ND, Not Detected; Obs., the observed content of each compound; The., the theorized content of each compound (Content_The. = Content_Obs. in DG × proportionality coefficient of DG in “Gui-Xiong” + Content_Obs. in CX × proportionality coefficient of CX in “Gui-Xiong”).