Chapter 23 - Systematic Characterization of the Absorbed Components of Acanthopanax senticosus Stem

Abstract

Acanthopanax senticosus Harms (AS), often called Siberian ginseng and Ciwujia in Chinese, has been universally used for the treatment of a variety of human diseases. It is popularly used as an “adaptogen” drug and could invigorate qi, strengthen the spleen, and nourish the kidneys according to the theory of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). A large number of literature data have shown that the research was quite extensive in aspects of chemical, pharmacological, and clinical studies on AS. Many sorts of chemical compounds were separated from AS, including triterpenoid saponins, lignans, coumarins, and flavones. However, effective constituents in vivo remain ambiguous. Although phenolic compounds such as syringin and eleutheroside E were considered to be the most active components, their process in the body was unknown. This present study investigates the constituents of rat serum after oral administration of AS extract utilizing the ultraperformance liquid chromatography quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry technique. The identification of 41 constituents including 7 prototype components and 34 metabolites in vivo and the elucidation of the metabolic pathway of the metabolites effectively narrow the scope of active compounds to be found and pave the way for follow-up action mechanism research.