Practice and development of structural characteristics and quality control of multi-dimensional structure of basic components of genuine material of Moutan Cortex

Abstract

Traditional Chinese medicine is the product of clinical medication practice of the Chinese nation for thousands of years. Its material basis is the key to reveal the essence of the roles of traditional Chinese medicine, and the fundamental guarantee to solve the difficulties in the quality control of traditional Chinese medicine. However, the material basis of traditional Chinese medicine is to exert the overall pharmacodynamic effect through multi-targets, multi-approaches and mutual cooperation, resulting in unclear quality control index. In recent years, the quality control standards of traditional Chinese medicine have experienced great changes by shifting the focus from the appearance characteristics to the internal material basis, which however is limited to the control of a single com-ponent or multiple components. In other words, the intrinsic effectiveness and safety could not be guaranteed without the characteristics of the integrity of traditional Chinese medicine. With Moutan Cortex as an example, this paper analyzed the evolution of Moutan Cortex quality standards based on Chinese Pharmacopoeia, and comprehensively summarized the material basis of Moutan Cortex. Based on the theory of "component structure", this study analyzed current quality control of the material basis of Moutan Cortex and its preparations, and expounded the development trend of multi-dimensional quality control, so as to lay a foundation for establishing a more rational quality control system for traditional Chinese medicine in the future.