Optmization for cutting procedure of astragali radix with Box-Behnken design and response surface method / 中国中药杂志

Astragali Radix was firstly recorded in the "Shen Nong's Herbal Classic" as a top-grade and commonly used traditional Chinese medicine. Its frequently used slices include raw Astragali Radix and honey-processed products. In current studies, many reports were made on honey-processed Astragali Radix, whereas fewer study reports were made on the cutting process of Astragali Radix. Currently, because Astragali Radix is primarily cut by drug workers according to their operating experience, but with out specific cutting parameters, it is easy to cause the loss or mildew of active ingredients. As a result, the quality of Astragali Radix circulated in the market is not guaranteed, and the quality of their slices and preparations are hard to be controlled, which seriously impact the clinical efficacy. In response, this experiment was performed, in which the optimum cutting process of Astragali Radix was taken as the study objective, the Box-Benhnken central composite design in the response surface analysis was adopted, and the content and appearance character of astragaloside and calycosin-7-glucoside were regarded as the study indicators. Three factors, namely the softening time, the drying temperature and the drying time, were selected to optimize the cutting process of Astragali Radix and obtain the optimum cutting process parameters as follows: the softening time was 3 hours, the drying temperature was 50 degrees C, and the drying time was 4 hours. According to the verification test, the Astragali Radix cutting process is steady and feasible, which has certain significance for normalizing the cutting process of Astragali Radix.

Optimization of Scutellaria baicalensis extraction process by orthogonal experiment combined with pharmacodynamic index / 中国中药杂志

To optimize the Scutellaria baicalensis extraction process, the filter paper method and the bacteriostatic ratio method were adopted to determine the in vitro bacteriostatic efficacy of water extracts and 60% alcohol extracts from S. baicalensis. The quantitative analysis of multi-components by single-marker (QAMS) was used to determined the contents of four active components, baicalin, wogonoside, baicalein and wogonin. In addition, with the bacteriostatic ratio and the overall desirability of the contents of four active components as indexes, the orthogonal experiment was adopted to detect the effect of water addition, extraction frequency and extraction time. The optimal extraction process was to add 12 times of water for the first time, 10 times of water for the second time, extract for 2 time, 2 h for each time. This optimization process is stable and feasible, with a higher bacteriostatic ratio in extracts.