Abstract
This article exemplifies a systematic approach to revealing the complexity of Chinese herbal medicine formulae through three levels of scientific research: standardization of herbs, verification of ancient formulae and mechanism studies. We use Danggui Buxue Tang (DBT) as an example for this approach. Among thousands of traditional Chinese medicine herbal formulae, almost all of which consist of multiple herbs, DBT is one of the simplest. Containing only two herbs, namely Radix Astragali (RA) and Radix Angelicae Sinensis (RAS), DBT is traditionally used to treat ailments in women. The weight ratio of RA to RAS in DBT was prescribed to be 5:1 as early as in 1247 AD. In addition to advanced chemical analysis of herbal constituents, DNA genotyping techniques have been developed for reliable standardization of RA and RAS. Chemical evaluation shows that main active constituents in DBT, including astragaloside IV, calycosin, formononetin and ferulic acid, were most abundant after extraction at the RA to RAS ratio of 5:1, whereas other tested RA to RAS ratios only gave sub-optimal levels of the active constituents. Biological evaluation indicates that bioactivities of DBT, e.g. immuno-modulatory, oesteotropic and estrogenic effects are also best exerted at the RA to RAS ratio of 5:1. Correlation analysis demonstrates statistically significant relationship between the tested chemical constituents and tested bioactivities. Up- and down-regulation of expression of some genes as potential biomarkers has been detected by using gene chip technology. This systematic approach on the basis of herbal standardization, chemical and biological verification and mechanism studies, as exemplified in this article, will be useful to reveal the complexity of not only DBT but also other Chinese medicine herbal formulae.
Highlights
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been used to improve the well-being of the Chinese people for thousands of years
We summarize recent findings of Danggui Buxue Tang (DBT) to exemplify a systematic approach to revealing the complexity of Chinese herbal medicine formulae through three levels of scientific research: standardization of raw materials, verification of ancient formulae and mechanism studies
To ensure the best quality of DBT decoction, we suggest that standardized Radix Astragali (RA) from Shanxi and standardized Radix Angelicae Sinensis (RAS) from Gansu should be used in all DBT preparations (Figure 2c)
Summary
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been used to improve the well-being of the Chinese people for thousands of years. The main active constituents in DBT include RA-derived astragaloside IV, calycosin and formononetin, RAS-derived ferulic acid and ligustilide, and total saponins, total flavonoids and total polysaccharides [19]. There are several possibilities for higher levels of active chemical constituents in DBT preparations Compounds such as saponins (over 2% in total dry weight) [10,17] in RA may help increase the solubility of other compounds extracted from RAS. Mechanism studies Correlation between chemical fingerprints and bioactivities of DBT Fifty-four chemical peaks were detected in DBT extracts by an HPLC analysis (Figure 5a) and a total of over 100 DBT extracts from various preparations were analyzed [27] Among these 54 peaks, the markers for RA-derived astragaloside IV, calycosin and formononetin, and for RASderived ferulic acid and ligustilide were identified. The values of the coefficients indicate possible relationship of these chemical peaks with bioactivities, where positive values suggest positive effects of chemicals
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