Abstract
Gastrodia elata Blume (G. elata), commonly called Tianma in Chinese, is an important and notable traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), which has been used in China as an anticonvulsant, analgesic, sedative, anti-asthma, anti-immune drug since ancient times. The aim of this review is to provide an overview of the abundant efforts of scientists in developing analytical techniques and performing pharmacokinetic studies of G. elata and its constituents, including sample pretreatment methods, analytical techniques, absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion (ADME) and influence factors to its pharmacokinetics. Based on the reported pharmacokinetic property data of G. elata and its constituents, it is hoped that more studies will focus on the development of rapid and sensitive analytical techniques, discovering new therapeutic uses and understanding the specific in vivo mechanisms of action of G. elata and its constituents from the pharmacokinetic viewpoint in the near future. The present review discusses analytical techniques and pharmacokinetics of G. elata and its constituents reported from 1985 onwards.
Highlights
It is well known that multiple components as well as some trace ingredients in herbal medicines are commonly administrated in clinical applications, and the constituents active in vivo are sometimes quite different from the pharmacologically active substances because of various biotransformations caused by phase I
The main reported method for separating G. elata or its constituents in biological systems, such as rat plasma [52], bile [53], intestine [54], liver [55], kidney [56], brain [45], cerebrospinal fluid [46], different brain regions of brain tissue homogenate [57], urine, feces [29], dog plasma [43], human plasma [42,58], rabbit plasma [59], is high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), where reversed phase HPLC is the most widely employed separating mode compared to the normal phase mode
The results showed that the pharmacokinetic parameters, area under the curve (AUC) and Cmax of GAS were dramatically different after oral administration of G. elata and the different combinations of its constituent herbs
Summary
Gastrodia elata Blume (G. elata), the tuber of the orchid, is considered a top grade herbal medicine, with a long history of use in many Asian countries for the treatment of many diseases thanks to its multiple activities, for example, anticonvulsion [1], antioxidation [2,3,4], anti-depression [5,6], analgesia [7], sedation [8,9], anti-epilepsy [10], anti-obesity [11], anti-asthma [12], anti-inflammation [13,14,15], learning and memory improvement [16,17,18] and neuroprotection [19,20,21,22].The composition of G. elata is highly complex, mostly unknown and exhibits variation due to the planting, harvesting, storage and manufacturing processes used. GAS and its aglycone gastrodigenin (p-hydroxybenzyl alcohol, HBA) are considered as the characteristic and main active constituents of G. elata [20,23,24], and the recent Chinese Pharmacopeia (2015 version) added HBA as one of the phytochemical markers of G. elata [25], that is, the quality of G. elata is controlled by both GAS and HBA. It is well known that multiple components as well as some trace ingredients in herbal medicines are commonly administrated in clinical applications, and the constituents active in vivo are sometimes quite different from the pharmacologically active substances because of various biotransformations caused by phase I and phase II metabolic enzymes. An ideal PK assay for an herbal medicine should simultaneously qualitatively and quantitatively characterize “what are absorbed
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