Simultaneous determination of multiple marker constituents in concentrated Gegen Tang granule by high performance liquid chromatography.
Song J, Han Q, Qiao C, Yip Y, Xu H.
Chinese Medicine Laboratory, Hong Kong Jockey Club Institute of Chinese Medicine, Shatin, NT, Hong Kong SAR, China.
BACKGROUND: Concentrated Gegen Tang (GT) granule is a widely available traditional Chinese medicinal product for the treatment of cold and flu, Chinese medicine for colds. There was no reliable analytical method available for the quality assessment of GT granules. METHODS: An HPLC method with an Agilent Zorbax SB-Phenyl Stablebond column (250 x 4.6 mm, 5 microm) was developed and validated. The mobile phase gradient was a mixture of 0.1% trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) in acetonitrile (ACN) and 0.1% TFA in water. The detection with a diode-array detector was set at 207, 230, 250 and 275 nm. Seven components, namely puerarin, daidzein, paeoniflorin, cinnamic acid, glycyrrhizin, ephedrine and pseudoephedrine were selected as marker compounds for the evaluation. RESULTS: The regression equations revealed good linear relationships (correlation coefficients: 0.9994-0.9998) between the peak areas and concentrations. The recovery was between 98.8% and 101.7% with good precision and accuracy. The quality of GT granule from four different manufacturers was evaluated with this newly developed method. Samples from four manufacturers showed similar profiles but contents of the detected markers varied significantly among manufacturers and batches. CONCLUSION: A new method using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) has been developed for simple and reliable quality control of commercial concentrated GT granules. Sensitivity was increased by multi-wavelength detection. The contents of selected marker components in GT granules varied significantly among manufacturers and batches, making it necessary to evaluate the quality of concentrated GT granules in the market.

Studies on the antinociceptive, anti-inflammatory and antipyretic effects of Isatis indigotica root
Yu-Ling Hoa, b and Yuan-Shiun Changa, c, ,
aInstitute of Chinese Pharmaceutical Sciences, China Medical College, Taichung, Taiwan, R.O.C.
bNursing Department, Hungkuang Institute of Technology, Taichung Shien, Taiwan, R.O.C.
cChinese Crude Drug Pharmacy, China Medical College Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan, R.O.C.
The root of Isatis indigotica (Cruciferae), popularly known as Ban-Lan-Gen is used in traditional Chinese medicine for seasonal febrile diseases, pestilence, mumps, eruptive diseases, inflammatory diseases with redness of skin, sore throat, etc. In this study, we evaluated the antinociceptive, anti-inflammatory and antipyretic effects of Isatis indigotica root methanolic extract. The results showed that Isatis indigotica root extract significantly and dose-dependently inhibited the writhing responses of mice and decreased the licking time in both the early and late phases of the formalin test. It also reduced the paw edema induced by carrageenan in rats. In addition, it potently attenuated pyrexia induced by lipopolysaccharide.

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