A Network Pharmacology Approach Used to Estimate the Active Ingredients of Moutan Cortex Charcoal and the Potential Targets in Hemorrhagic Diseases.

Moutan Cortex charcoal has been used to ameliorate blood heat symptoms and treat pathologic hemorrhage down the ages. Although well known as an agent with the effect of astringency and hemostasis, its active ingredients and action mechanism remain unclear. In the present study, molecular docking technology was employed to screen the potential hemostatic compounds in Moutan Cortex charcoal and their target proteins. Protein-protein-interaction (PPI) analysis was performed to explain the functions and enrichment pathways of the target proteins. The results showed that a total of 25 compounds were estimated as active constituents targeting multiple proteins related to hemostatic diseases, including 5 proteins (SERPINC1, FVIII, FX, FII and FXII) that were considered as the key targets. Then the drug-target (D-T) network was constructed to analyze the underlying hemostatic mechanism of Moutan Cortex charcoal, followed by a hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) for compounds clustering, and a coagulation screening test for compound verification on their coagulation activities, with the results indicating that M15 (5-Tetradecenoic acid) and M31 (1-Monolinolein) might be the key compounds contributing to the hemostasis effect of Moutan Cortex charcoal by involving in the pathways related to complement, coagulation cascades and the platelet activation, particularly by activating FVIII, FX, FII and FXII and inhibiting SERPINC1. This study has demonstrated that Moutan Cortex charcoal may work as a hemostatic through the interaction between multiple-compounds and multiple-proteins, which provides the basis for further researches on the hemostasis mechanism of Moutan Cortex charcoal.

1H NMR-based metabonomic revealed protective effect of Moutan Cortex charcoal on blood-heat and hemorrhage rats.

Moutan Cortex charcoal (MCC), the processed root bark of Paeonia suff ;ruticosa Andrews (Paeoniaceae), is a kind of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and has been used for treating blood-heat and hemorrhage(BHH)syndrome in China for thousands of years. In order to explore potential metabolic mechanism, 1H NMR-based metabonomics technique was applied to evaluate the effect of MCC on metabolic changes in plasma and urine of BHH rat models. Serum and urine samples were obtained from male SD rats with normal group, model group and MCC group for study. Based on 1H NMR spectra obtained from plasma and urine samples, principal component analysis (PCA) and orthogonal partial least-squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) models were capable of distinguishing the three group. And the 13 pharmacodynamic biomarkers of MCC were identified in the plasma and urine. The results showed that BHH induced great metabolic disorders in plasma and urine metabolisms. However, MCC could reverse the imbalanced metabolites by alanine, aspartate and glutamate metabolism and citrate cycle (TCA cycle) pathway, and its effect was also confirmed by the general signs and pharmacodynamics assessments. The results indicated that NMR-based metabolomic profiling method is sensitive and specific enough to evaluate the MCC efficacy and mechanism of action on BHH syndromes.

Correlation Analysis of Color and Effective Components Content in Moutan Cortex before and after Carbonized / 中国药房

OBJECTIVE： To study the correlation between the color of Moutan Cortex and the contents of effective components before and after carbonized， and to provide reference for identification and quality evaluation of Moutan Cortex and its charcoal piece decoction. METHODS： Using colorimeter determination of Moutan Cortex and Moutan Cortex charcoal decoction pieces powder chroma space parameter [lightness value （L*）， red， green and component values （a*）， yellow and blue component value （b*） and total color difference value （E*ab）]， HPLC method for content determination of 10 effective components （gallic acid， 5-HMF， catechins， oxypaeoniflorin， paeoniflorin， quercetin， benzoyl paeoniflorin， isorhamnetin， paeonol， kaempferide） content in Moutan Cortex and Moutan Cortex charcoal decoction pieces. On this basis， the correlation between the content of effective components and the chromaticity space parameter of a color was studied by SPSS 21.0 software. RESULTS： There was no correlation between gallic acid content and the chromaticity space parameter of a color （P＞0.05）. There was an extremely significant negative correlation between 5-HMF content and L*， b*， E*ab （P＜0.01）， and an extremely significant positive correlation between 5-HMF content and a* （P＜0.01）. The content of paeoniflorin was positively correlated with L*， b* and E*ab， but not with a* （P＞0.05）. The content of oxidized paeoniflorin was positively correlated with L* and E*ab （P＜0.01）， and negatively correlated with a* （P＜0.01）， but not with b* （P＞0.05）. The content of catechins， quercetin， benzoyl paeoniflorin， isorhamnin， paeonol and kaempferol were positively correlated with L*， b* and E*ab （P＞0.05）， and negatively correlated with a* （P＞0.05）. CONCLUSIONS： Chromatic aberration technology can quantify the color of Moutan Cortex and its charcoal decoction pieces， and there is a significant correlation between the color of Moutan Cortex before and after processing and the content of its active ingredients.