Chimonanthus nitens Oliv. leaves flavonoids alleviate hyperuricemia by regulating uric acid metabolism and intestinal homeostasis in mice

This study aimed to evaluate the alleviating effect of Chimonanthus nitens Oliv.leaves flavonoids(CLF)on hyperuricemia induced by potassium oxonate in mice.The results showed that CLF lowered the serum levels of uric acid(UA),creatinine and blood urea nitrogen,downregulated hepatic mRNA expressions of xanthine oxidase(XO),phosphate ribose pyrophosphate synthetase(PRPS)and adenosine deaminase(ADA)in hyperuricemia mice.In addition,CLF repaired renal injury by significantly down-regulating mRNA and protein expressions of renal UA reabsorption-related proteins and up-regulating the mRNA and protein expressions of UA secretory-related proteins.Finally,CLF inhibited UA synthesis and promoted UA excretion to alleviate hyperuricemia.Besides,CLF supplementation repaired the intestinal barrier function as demonstrated by significant increased mRNA levels of intestinal zonula occludens-1(ZO-1),Occludin,mucin 2(MUC2)and mucin 4(MUC4),as well as decreased mRNA levels of toll-like receptor 4(TLR4)and myeloid differentiation factor 88(MyD88)in mice.Further research showed that CLF treatment restored intestinal homeostasis mediated by improving the composition of gut microbiota and elevating the abundance of beneficial bacteria like Lactobacillus,Alistipes,Prevotellaceae_UCG-001 and Parasutterella.Overall,our findings revealed a novel function of CLF as a promising therapeutic candidate for the treatment of hyperuricemia.

Simultaneous determination of l-calycanthine, quercetin, and kaempferol in Chimonanthi Nitentis Folium by RP-HPLC

A reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography （RP-HPLC） method was established for the simultaneous determination of three major constituents,/-calycanthine, quercetin, and kaempferol, in Chimonanthi Nitentis Folium. The RP-HPLC analysis was carried out using an Agilent HC-C18 （4.6 mm×250 mm, 5 μm） column and a gradient mobile phase consisting of methanol and phosphate buffer （10：90→90：10, v/v） at a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min. The column temperature was 25 ℃ and the detection wavelength was set at 239 nm from 0 to 15 min and 365 nm from 16 to 45 min. All calibration curves showed good linearity （R2〉0.9991） within test ranges. Relative standard deviations of repeated analyses were less than 2.64% （n = 6）, and the recovery of this method was 97.47%-98.26%. The contents of these three analytes were determined for the samples from different harvest times. The results showed that the/-calycanthine content in herbs increases from 99.94 μg/g to 468.0μg/g from April to July, whereas the content of quercetin and kaempferol was higher in April and May than that in June and July, which were consistent with the Chinese traditional medicine＇s use of Chimonanthi Nitentis Folium in Spring. Herein, a simple, rapid and accurate analytical method is presented and successfully applied for the simultaneous quantitative analysis of alkaloids and flavones from Chimonanthus nitens Oliv.