Study on Nature Change of Processed Coptidis Rhizoma Based on Metabonomics

Abstract

According to the theories of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), all Chinese medicinal substances have a special nature (cold, hot, warm or cool). Processing of Chinese Materia Medica (Pao zhi) is usually applied to modify the nature of medicinal substances to meet clinical needs [1]. It is believed that, after processing by materials with different natures, such as wine (hot) or animal bile (cold), the cold nature of Coptidis Rhizoma (CR. Coptis chinensis Franch.) could be moderated to be less cold or reinforced to be even colder. This change may be monitored by energy metabolic parameters. To evaluate the effects of processing on a Chinese medicinal substance's nature, HPLC-MS/MS-based metabonomics was used to find the possible energy metabolism biomarkers of processed CR in rat urine. Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were administrated 15g·kg-1 of an aqueous extract of wine-processed and bile-processed CR for 29 days. Urine was collected at different durations and analyzed by HPLC-MS/MS. The data were analyzed using principal component analysis (PCA) with SIMCA-P 1010 software. The metabonome showed the biggest difference in the 29th day between the groups treated by wine-processed and bile-processed CR. For both groups, 92 kinds of biomarkers were identified, among which 1, 3-bisphosphoglycerate, cis-aconitic acid and malic acid were consistent with previously observed pharmacological effects of energy metabolisms [2]. The concentrations of the energy metabolism markers were found to be lower in bile-processing group than those in wine-processing group, suggesting that bile-processed CR was more likely to decrease rats' energy metabolism than wine-processed CR. The goal of this research was to provide a better understanding of processing effects on the nature of Chinese medicinal substances. Acknowledgements: This research work is financially supported by Young Scientists training program in Jiangxi Province (Project No. 2007185). We thank Key Laboratory of Jiangxi University of TCM, Ministry of Education of China for the operation support for HPLC-MS/MS.