A Synergetic Strategy for Brand Characterization of Colla Corii Asini (Ejiao) by LIBS and NIR Combined with Partial Least Squares Discriminant Analysis.

A synergetic strategy was proposed to address the critical issue in the brand characterization of Colla corii asini (Ejiao, CCA), a precious traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). In all brands of CCA, Dong'e Ejiao (DEEJ) is an intangible cultural heritage resource. Seventy-eight CCA samples (including forty DEEJ samples and thirty-eight samples from other different manufacturers) were detected by laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) and near-infrared spectroscopy (NIR). Partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) models were built first considering individual techniques separately, and then fusing LIBS and NIR data at low-level. The statistical parameters including classification accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity were calculated to evaluate the PLS-DA model performance. The results demonstrated that two individual techniques show good classification performance, especially the NIR. The PLS-DA model with single NIR spectra pretreated by the multiplicative scatter correction (MSC) method was preferred as excellent discrimination. Though individual spectroscopic data obtained good classification performance. A data fusion strategy was also attempted to merge atomic and molecular information of CCA. Compared to a single data block, data fusion models with SNV and MSC pretreatment exhibited good predictive power with no misclassification. This study may provide a novel perspective to employ a comprehensive analytical approach to brand discrimination of CCA. The synergetic strategy based on LIBS together with NIR offers atomic and molecular information of CCA, which could be exemplary for future research on the rapid discrimination of TCM.

Integrated serum pharmacochemistry and investigation of the anti-gastric ulcer effect of Zuojin pill in rats induced by ethanol.

CONTEXT: Zuojin Pill (ZJP) has been used to treat gastrointestinal problems in China for hundreds of years. OBJECTIVE: To discover more potential active ingredients and evaluate the gastroprotective mechanisms of ZJP. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An approach involving UPLC-Q-Orbitrap HRMS and serum pharmacochemistry was established to screen the multiple chemical constituents of ZJP. Male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were divided into six groups: normal control, ulcer control, omeprazole (30 mg/kg), and three ZJP groups (1.0, 2.0 and 4.0 g/kg). After oral treatment with ZJP or omeprazole for 7 days, all groups except the normal control group were orally administered 5 mL/kg ethanol to induce gastric ulceration. Histopathological assessment of gastric tissue was performed by haematoxylin and eosin staining. Antioxidant parameters and inflammatory mediators were determined using ELISA Kit and immunohistochemical analysis. RESULTS: Ninety components were identified in ZJP. Among them, 23 prototypes were found in rat serum after oral administration of ZJP. The ulcer inhibition was over 90.0% for all the ZJP groups. Compared with the ulcer control rats, ZJP (4.0 g/kg) enhanced the antioxidant capacity of gastric tissue: superoxide dismutase (1.33-fold), catalase (2.61-fold), glutathione (2.14-fold), and reduced the malondialdehyde level (0.48-fold). Simultaneously, the ZJP meaningfully lowered the content of tumour necrosis factor-α (0.76-fold), interleukin-6 (0.66-fold), myeloperoxidase (0.21-fold), and nuclear factor kappa B (p65) (0.62-fold). DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: This study showed ZJP could mitigate ethanol-induced rat gastric ulcers, which might benefit from the synergistic actions of multiple ingredients. The findings could support the quality control and clinical trials of ZJP.

[Research on whole blending end-point evaluation method of Angong Niuhuang Wan based on QbD concept].

The blending end-point determination of Angong Niuhuang Wan (AGNH) is a key technology problem. The control strategy based on quality by design (QbD) concept proposes a whole blending end-point determination method, and provides a methodology for blending the Chinese materia medica containing mineral substances. Based on QbD concept, the laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) was used to assess the cinnabar, realgar and pearl powder blending of AGNH in a pilot-scale experiment, especially the whole blending end-point in this study. The blending variability of three mineral medicines including cinnabar, realgar and pearl powder, was measured by moving window relative standard deviation (MWRSD) based on LIBS. The time profiles of realgar and pearl powder did not produce consistent results completely, but all of them reached even blending at the last blending stage, so that the whole proposal blending end point was determined. LIBS is a promising Process Analytical Technology (PAT) for process control. Unlike other elemental determination technologies such ICP-OES, LIBS does not need an elaborate digestion procedure, which is a promising and rapid technique to understand the blending process of Chinese materia medica (CMM) containing cinnabar, realgar and other mineral traditional Chinese medicine. This study proposed a novel method for the research of large varieties of traditional Chinese medicines..