Abstract
Farfarae Flos (FF) is the dried flower bud of Tussilago farfara L, which has antitussive, expectorant, and anti-inflammatory effects. However, little research on the main active composition of FF has been reported. The purpose of this study is to find the main active compounds responsible for the three pharmacological effects (i.e., antitussive, expectorant, and anti-inflammatory effects) of Farfarae Flos, based on the spectrum–effect relationship combined with chemometrics. First, this study uses the UPLC-QDA method to establish the chromatography fingerprint of Farfarae Flos, which is combined with chemometrics to analyze 18 batches of samples. Then, we study the antitussive, expectorant, and anti-inflammatory effects of Farfarae Flos. Finally, the spectrum–effect relationship between the fingerprint and the three pharmacological effects are studied by grey correlation analysis and partial least squares regression. The results show that four, four, and three main active constituents were found for the antitussive, expectorant, and anti-inflammatory pharmacological effects, respectively. In conclusion, we found the main active compounds corresponding to the main pharmacodynamic effects of Farfarae Flos. To our knowledge, this is the first time that spectrum–effect relationships in FF have been established using both raw and processed samples, which provides an experimental basis for further studies on the pharmacodynamic material basis of Farfarae Flos, as well as providing reference for the comprehensive evaluation of Farfarae Flos quality and the development of substitute resources.
Highlights
The history of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) can be traced back thousands of years, when people discovered that the roots or bark of some plants were able to treat certain diseases [1]
hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) analysis of the 18 batches of samples shows that the raw samples S10, S11, S12, S13, S14, S15, S16, and S17 are clearly divided into a cluster, while the processed samples M1, M2, M3, M4, M5, M6, and M7 are clearly classified into another cluster
We selected the peak area of 14 common peaks from 10 batches of samples to of samples to prepare for the establishment of the spectrum–effect relationship
Summary
The history of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) can be traced back thousands of years, when people discovered that the roots or bark of some plants were able to treat certain diseases [1]. A chromatographic fingerprint can reveal the chemical characteristics of drugs and is an effective method for evaluating the similarity and quality of TCMs [5,6,7,8]. This technique has difficulties in finding the main active constituents of TCMs in response to certain pharmacological effects. In order to solve this problem, scholars have found that mathematical statistical methods can be used to establish spectrum–effect relationships and find the effective constituents corresponding to certain pharmacodynamic effects in TCMs [9,10,11,12,13]. We will explore the main active antitussive, expectorant, and anti-inflammatory constituents in Farfarae Flos, based on the spectrum–effect relationship
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