Antitussive, anti-pyretic and toxicological evaluation of Ma-Xing-Gan-Shi-Tang in rodents.

Yu-Chin Lin,Chi-Rei Wu,Ching-Wen Chang

doi:10.1186/s12906-016-1440-2

Yu-Chin Lin, Chi-Rei Wu + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.1186/s12906-016-1440-2

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Abstract

BackgroundMa-Xing-Gan-Shi-Tang (abbreviated as MXGST), an important Chinese herbal prescribed for cough, bronchial inflammation and fever from pneumonia, consists of four medicinal herbs, including Ephedrae herb, Semen Pruni Armeniacae, licorice and Gypsum. These components, especially Ephedrae and Semen Pruni Armeniacae, possess antitussive activities, but they have severe adverse effects.MethodsThe pharmacological activities of MXGST extract in clinical use were investigated with citric acid-induced cough, acetylcholine/histamine-induced bronchial contraction and lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced fever in rodents. The subacute toxicology of MXGST extract was evaluated after a 28-day repeated oral administration in rats.ResultsEach gram of MXGST extract contained 60 ± 8 μg of ephedrine, 480 ± 40 μg of glycyrrhizic acid and 440 ± 8 μg of amygdalin according to high performance liquid chromatography and a photodiode array detector. MXGST extract produced pronounced, dose-dependent antitussive effects in guinea pigs and reduced hyperthermic syndrome induced by LPS in rats. MXGST extract blocked the bronchial contraction induced by acetylcholine/histamine. Oral administration of MXGST extract for 28 days did not cause any hematological, biochemical or histological changes in rats.ConclusionsMXGST extract is a safer, more effective Chinese prescription with antitussive and anti-pyretic effects. The antitussive mechanism of MXGST is related to partially relaxing the bronchial smooth muscle by blocking acetylcholinergic and histaminergic receptors.

Highlights

Ma-Xing-Gan-Shi-Tang, an important Chinese herbal prescribed for cough, bronchial inflammation and fever from pneumonia, consists of four medicinal herbs, including Ephedrae herb, Semen Pruni Armeniacae, licorice and Gypsum
We further investigated the antitussive mechanism of MXGST extract using acetylcholine/histamine-induced bronchial contraction in guinea pigs
Effects of MXGST extract on the acetylcholine/histamineinduced bronchial contraction in guinea pigs The pre-convulsive time of acetylcholine/histamine induced tracheobronchial tonic contraction in guinea pigs ranged from 48.9 to 89.0 s, averaging 59.3 s

Summary

Introduction

Ma-Xing-Gan-Shi-Tang (abbreviated as MXGST), an important Chinese herbal prescribed for cough, bronchial inflammation and fever from pneumonia, consists of four medicinal herbs, including Ephedrae herb, Semen Pruni Armeniacae, licorice and Gypsum. These components, especially Ephedrae and Semen Pruni Armeniacae, possess antitussive activities, but they have severe adverse effects. Ephedrae, a plant containing multiple active alkaloids, possesses antitussive and anti-asthmatic activities and has been used to treat upper respiratory tract infection or asthma for decades. We performed a 28-day repeated oral subacute toxicology test of MXGST extract because the major components of MXGST extract, including Ephedrae, Semen Pruni Armeniacae and licorice have toxicological reports in animal and clinical application [11,12,13,14, 17,18,19,20]

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