[Dryness comparison of different fractions of Aurantii Fructus extract on normal mice and gastrointestinal motility disorder rats and spectrum-dryness study].

Aurantii Fructus is a commonly used qi-regulating medicinal herb in China. Both traditional Chinese medicine theory and modern experimental research demonstrate that Aurantii Fructus has dryness effect, the material basis of which remains unclear. In recent years, spectrum-effect relationship has been widely employed in the study of active ingredients in Chinese medicinal herbs, the research ideas and methods of which have been constantly improved. Based on the idea of spectrum-effect study, the ultra-high perfor-mance liquid chromatography-quadrupole-time of flight mass spectrometry(UHPLC-Q-TOF-MS) fingerprints of different fractions of Aurantii Fructus extract were established for the identification of total components. Then, the dryness effects of the fractions on normal mice and gastrointestinal motility disorder(GMD) rats were systematically compared. Finally, principal component analysis(PCA), Pearson bivariate correlation analysis and orthogonal partial least squares analysis(OPLS) were integrated to identify the dryness components of Aurantii Fructusextract. The results showed that narirutin, naringin, naringenin, poncirin, oxypeucedanin, and eriodictyol-7-O-glucoside had significant correlations with and contributed to the expression of AQP2 in kidney, AQP3 in colon, and AQP5 in submandibular gland, which were the main dryness components in Aurantii Fructus.

Extraction of activated epimedium glycosides in vivo and in vitro by using bifunctional-monomer chitosan magnetic molecularly imprinted polymers and identification by UPLC-Q-TOF-MS.

In this work, efficient, sensitive bifunctional-monomer chitosan magnetic molecularly imprinted polymers (BCMMIPs) were fabricated and successfully applied to concentrate the metabolites of Epimedium flavonoids in rat testis and bone that were later analyzed using UPLC-Q-TOF-MS. Using chitosan and methacrylic acid as co-functional monomers, BCMMIPs exhibited a large adsorption capacity (7.60 mg/g), fast kinetics (60 min), and good selectivity. Chitosan is bio-compatible and non-toxic, and methacrylic acid provides multiple hydrogen bond donors. The BCMMIPs were injected into rat testis to specifically enrich the total flavonoid metabolites in vivo and were used to extract metabolites from bone in vitro. The results showed that the BCMMIPs coupled with UPLC-Q-TOF-MS successfully identified 28 compounds from testis and 18 compounds from bone, including 19 new compounds. This study provided a reliable protocol for the concentration of metabolites from complex biological samples, and several new metabolites of Epimedium flavonoids were found in vivo and in vitro.

In Vivo Metabolic Profiles of Panax notoginseng Saponins Mediated by Gut Microbiota in Rats.

Panax notoginseng saponins (PNSs) are the major health-beneficial components of P. notoginseng with very low oral bioavailability, which could be biotransformed by gut microbiota in vitro. However, in vivo biotransformation of PNS mediated by gut microbiota is not well known. This study aimed to characterize the in vivo metabolic profiles of PNS mediated by gut microbiota. The saponins and yielded metabolites in rat feces were identified and relatively quantified by ultra-performance liquid chromatography tandem/quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Seventy-three PNS metabolites had been identified in the normal control group, but only 11 PNS metabolites were determined in the pseudo germ-free (GF) group. In addition, the main biotransformation pathway of PNS metabolism was hydrolytic and dehydration reactions. The results indicated that a significant metabolic difference was observed between the normal control group and pseudo GF group, while gut microbiota played a profound role in the biotransformation of PNS in vivo.