Rapid and simultaneous determination of moisture and berberine content in Coptidis Rhizoma and Phellodendri Chinensis Cortex by near-infrared spectroscopy and chemometrics

Coptidis Rhizoma(Chinese:Huanglian)and Phellodendri Chinensis Cortex(Chinese:Huangbo)are widely used Traditional Chinese Medicine,and often used in combination because of their similar pharmacological effects in clinical practice.However,the quality control methods of the two drugs are different and complicated,which is time consuming and laborious in practical application.In this paper,rapid and simultaneous determination of moisture and berberine in Coptidis Rhizoma(CR)and Phellodendri Chinensis Cortex(PC)was realized by near-infrared spectroscopy(NIRs)combined with global models.Competitive adaptive reweighted sampling(CARS)and successive projection algorithm(SPA)method were applied for variable selection.Principal component analysis(PCA)and partial least squares regression method(PLSR)were applied for qualitative and quantitative analysis,respectively.The characteristic variables of berberine showed similarity and consistency in distribution,providing basis for the global models.For moisture content,the global model had relative standard error of prediction set(RSEP)value of 3.04%and 2.53%for CR and PC,respectively.For berberine content,the global model had RSEP value of 5.41%and 3.97%for CR and PC,respectively.These results indicated the global models based on CARS-PLS method achieved satisfactory prediction for moisture and berberine content,improving the determination e±ciency.Furthermore,the greater range and larger number of samples enhanced the reliance of the global model.The NIRs combined with global models could be a powerful tool for quality control of CR and PC.

A network pharmacology-based study on the anti-hepatoma effect of Phellodendri Chinensis Cortex

Traditional Chinese medicine(TCM)Phellodendri Chinensis Cortex(PCC)has been used for the treatment of human hepatocellular carcinoma,but the underlying mechanisms are still unclear.In this study,15 active compositions of PCC were obtained from Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology Database(TCMSP),and 505 putative identified targets of PCC were screened by Swiss Target Prediction server.Next,HCC data was downloaded from Drugbank and GeneCards databases.Furtherly,45 common targets were revealed.The network diagrams of the active component-target network,protein-protein interaction(PPI)network and active component-target-pathway network were constructed using Cytoscape software.The analysis of the network results showed that the active ingredients of PCC,such as berberine,obacunone,rutaecarpine,candletoxin A,palmatine,isocorypalmine,quercetin,and(S)-Canadine,had a good binding activity with more targets.Additionally,Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes(KEGG)pathway enrichment analyses revealed that common targets were significantly enriched in Ras signaling pathway,ErbB signaling pathway,and Mammalian target of rapamycin(mTOR)signaling pathway.Altogether,the multi-component,multi-target,and multi-pathway characteristics of PCC provided a reference for the in-depth study of the mechanism of PCC in the treatment of HCC.

Simultaneous determination of berberine,matrine and oxymatrine in traditional Chinese medicines by using nonaqueous capillary electrophoresis

A rapid method for the simultaneous determination of berberine(BBR),matrine(MT)and oxymatrine(OMT)by nonaqueous capillary electrophoresis(NACE)was developed.Optimum separation of the analytes was obtained on a 50cm×50μm i.d.fused-silica capillary using a non-aqueous buffer system of 70mM ammonium acetate,7.0% acetic acid and 10% acetonitrile at 25kV and 20℃.The relative standard deviations(R.S.D.)of the migration times and peak areas of the three active components were 0.06%-0.20% and 0.12%-3.41% for berberine,0.11%-0.60% and 0.74%-1.63% for matrine,0.15% and 0.45% for oxymatrine,respectively.Detection limits of berberine,matrine and oxymtrine were 0.18μg/mL,4.08μg/mL and 4.16μg/mL,respectively.In the tested concentration range,good linear relationships(0.9992 for berberine,0.9988 for matrine and 0.9988 for oxymatrine)were observed.The linear calibration ranges were 0.45-360.0μg/mL for berberine,8.16-408.0μg/mL for matrine and 20.8-416.0μg/mL for oxymatrine.This method has been successfully applied to the phytochemical analysis of alkaloids extracts from two commonly used traditional Chinese herbal drugs:Sophora flavescens Ait.(Kushen)and Cortex phellodendri chinensis(Huangbai)and their medicinal preparations.