Quality Control of Danggui Buxue Tang, a Traditional Chinese Medicine Decoction, by (1)H-NMR Metabolic Profiling.
Danggui Buxue Tang (DBT) is one of the simplest traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) decoctions, first described in China in 1247 AD. DBT is composed of 2 herbs, Astragali Radix (AR) and Angelica Sinensis Radix (ASR), boiled together in a 5 : 1 ratio. Clinically, DBT is prescribed to women as a remedy for menopausal symptoms. Here, H-NMR metabolic profiling was conducted for DBT and the water extracts of AR or ASR, to evaluate the potential of this chemical profiling method for quality control of the herbal decoction. Principal component analysis (PCA) showed that DBT could be readily distinguished from the water extracts of its constituent herbs by the metabolic profiles. More interestingly, the metabolic profile of DBT was not a simple sum of that of AR and ASR. Asparagine was found at significantly higher concentration in DBT than that in either AR or ASR extract, contributing mainly to the discrimination of DBT sample. In addition, we employed the same method to profile a commercial DBT powder, verifying its authenticity as compared to our prepared DBT. This study is the first to employ H-NMR metabolic profiling for the quality control of traditional Chinese medicine decoctions.
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Hong Kong.
Pui Hei
0000-0003-3621-0707
PH
Chan
Divison of Life Science and Centre for Chinese Medicine, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Hong Kong.
Wendy L
WL
Zhang
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Hong Kong.
Chi Yuen
CY
Cheung
Divison of Life Science and Centre for Chinese Medicine, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Hong Kong.
Karl W K
KW
Tsim
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Hong Kong ; Division of Biomedical Engineering, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Hong Kong.
Henry
0000-0001-7928-0364
H
Lam