Chapter 16 - Active Constituents Screening Based on Correlation Analysis Between Marker Metabolites and the Absorbed Constituents in WenXin Formulae

Abstract

WenXin Formulae (WXF) is a famous traditional prescription, and has been widely used to treat XinQiXu (XQX) Syndrome. With the serum pharmacochemistry of TCM, a total of 32 peaks were tentatively characterized in vivo; 26 of which were parent components, and six of which were detected metabolites. These components mainly were: ginsenosides, paeoniflorin, galloyl glucose, berberis alkaloids, phenolic glycosides, and unsaturated fatty acids, and glucuronide products of original berberis alkaloids. WXF has a potential therapeutic effect through regulating multiple perturbed pathways. Six potentially active constituents (albiflorin, paeoniflorin, coptisine, berberine, palmatine, and ginsenoside Rg1) were screened by the plotting of correlations between marker metabolites, and the serum constituents (PCMS) from WXF. It was successfully applied for the rapid discovery of potentially active components and metabolites from WXF, and proved that the established method could explore the effective substances for the further research of WXF.