Abstract
Most of herbal medicines of different sources are used for the same treatment goal in clinic despite their tremendous differences of the quality. Because the clinical efficacy is closely related to the quality of medicines, the implementation of an effective quality control (QC) process is vital. Chemical methods based on content determination and chromatographic fingerprints (CFs) have been recommended as powerful tools. In spite of advances in QC, it is still difficult to determine that which of the chemical compositions can best reflect the correlation with the desired biological activity. Herein, we have focused on the biological activities of multi-source herbal medicines to establish an analytical method. By looking for correlations between the biological activities and their chemical compositions, the method can identify reasonable chemical indicators or chemical methods with biological activity information. In this study, high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and microcalorimetry are combined as a useful method for evaluating the quality of Rhizoma coptidis from different sources. The results of biological fingerprints (BFs) showed that the antibacterial activity sequence of R. coptidis of different sources was Coptis teeta Wall. (CT)>Coptis chinensis Franch. (CC)>Coptis deltoidea C.Y. Cheng et Hsiao (CD). The “spectrum-activity” relationships between CFs and BFs were investigated using the canonical correlation analysis (CCA). Compared with the CCA result of CFs and BFs, the canonical correlation coefficient r 1 and r 2 were 0.9974 and 0.9752, respectively. It revealed that there are a close correlation between the spectrum-activity relationships and several of the major anti-bacterial components in the CFs, including jatrorrhizine, coptisine, palmatine, and berberine. Of course, R. coptidis was only a representative of multi-source medical plants. The result of the current study will provide an effective reference for evaluating the quality of multi-source herbal medicines.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Committee on Japanese Pharmacopoeia. The Japanese Pharmacopoeia Sixteenth Edition. Tokyo: Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, 2011. 1628–1630
China Pharmacopoeia Committee. China Pharmacopoeia (in Chinese). Beijing: China Press of Traditional Chinese Medicine, 2010. A285–286
Qi L W, Wang C Z, Yuan C S. Combinatorial biosynthesis in plants: A (p)review on its potential and future exploitation. Nat Prod Rep, 2011, 28:467–495
Wen J, Kang L, Liu H, et al. A validated UV-HPLC method for determination of chlorogenic acid in Lepidogrammitis drymoglossoides (Baker) Ching, Polypodiaceae. Pharmacognosy Res, 2012, 4:148–153
Deng J W, Fan C L, Yang Y Y, et al. Identification and determination of the major constituents in Deng’s herbal tea granules by rapid resolution liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry. J Pharm Biomed Anal, 2011, 56:928–936
Deconinck E, Verlinde K, Courselle P, et al. A validated ultra high pressure liquid chromatographic method for the characterisation of confiscated illegal slimming products containing anorexics. J Pharm Biomed Anal, 2012, 59:38–43
Wang H, Guo S, Qian D, et al. Comparative analysis of quinolizidine alkaloids from different parts of Sophora alopecuroides seeds by UPLC-MS/MS. J Pharm Biomed Anal, 2012, 67–68:16–21
Yan D, Li W, Xiao X H, et al. Microcalorimetric investigation of effect of berberine alkalids from Coptis chinensis Franch on intestinal diagnostic flora growth. Chin Sci Bull, 2009, 54:369–373
Zhang S F, Yan D, Tang H Y, et al. The toxic effect of solubilizing excipients on Tetrahymena thermophila BF5 growth investigated by microcalorimetry. Chin Sci Bull, 2010, 55:1870–1876
Yan D, Han Y M, Luo J Y, et al. The action of medicinal animal horns on Escherichia coli growth investigated by microcalorimetry and chemometric analysis. Chin Sci Bull, 2010, 55:2945–2950
Furustrand Tafin U, Clauss M, Hauser P M, et al. Isothermal microcalorimetry: A novel method for real-time determination of antifungal susceptibility of Aspergillus species. Clin Microbiol Infect, 2012, 18:E241–E245
Murti Y, Singh A K, Pathak D. New 6-bromo-2-methyl-3-(substituted phenyl)-(3H)-quinazolin-4-ones with antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory activities. Indian J Pharm Sci, 2011, 73:333–337
Ma L, He Y J, Li Y, et al. Actions of four organic acids in radix isatidis on endotoxin-neutralization investigated by kinetic turbidimetric assay. J Tradit Chin Med, 2012, 32:261–266
Kong W J, Zhao Y L, Xiao X H, et al. Spectrum-effect relationships between ultra performance liquid chromatography fingerprints and anti-bacterial activities of Rhizoma coptidis. Anal Chim Acta, 2009, 634:279–285
Hwang J M, Kuo H C, Tseng T H, et al. Berberine induces apoptosis through a mitochondria/caspases pathway in human hepatoma cells. Arch Toxicol, 2006, 80:62–73
Hsu W H, Hsieh Y S, Kuo H C, et al. Berberine induces apoptosis in SW620 human colonic carcinoma cells through generation of reactive oxygen species and activation of JNK/p38 MAPK and FasL. Arch Toxicol, 2007, 81:719–728
Yan D, Han Y M, Wei L, et al. Effect of berberine alkaloids on Bifidobacterium adolescentis growth by microcalorimetry. J Therm Anal Calorim, 2009, 95:495–499
Yan D, Jin C, Xiao X H, et al. Antimicrobial properties of berberines alkaloids in Coptis chinensis Franch by microcalorimetry. J Biochem Biophys Methods, 2008, 70:845–849
Zhang S J, Wang M Y, Wang C H. Preparative separation and purification of alkaloids from Rhizoma coptidis by high-speed counter-current chromatography. Sep Purif Technol, 2011, 76:428–431
Liu Q X, Qiu S Y, Yu H, et al. Selective separation of structure-related alkaloids in Rhizoma coptidis with “click” binaphthyl stationary phase and their structural elucidation with liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. Analyst, 2011, 136:4357–4365
Wadsö I. Isothermal microcalorimetry in applied biology. Thermochim Acta, 2002, 394:305–311
Chen Y, Zhu S B, Xie M Y, et al. Quality control and original discrimination of Ganoderma lucidum based on high-performance liquid chromatographic fingerprints and combined chemometrics methods. Anal Chim Acta, 2008, 623:146–156
Xie P S. Chromatographic fingerprints of traditional Chinese Medicine (in Chinese). Beijing: People’s Medical Publishing House, 2005
Abdi H, Williams L J. Principal component analysis. WIREs Comp Stat, 2010, 2:433–459
Härdle W K, Simar L. Applied Multivariate Statistical Analysis. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 2012. Part 3. 385–395
Hwang H, Jung K, Takane Y, et al. A unified approach to multiple-set canonical correlation analysis and principal components analysis. Br J Math Stat Psychol, 2012, doi: 10.1111/j.2044-8317.2012.02052.x33
Kong W J, Wang J B, Jin C, et al. Effect of emodin on Candida albicans growth investigated by microcalorimetry combined with chemometric analysis. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol, 2009, 83:1183–1190
Ren Y S, Zhang P, Yan D, et al. A strategy for the detection of quality fluctuation of a Chinese herbal injection based on chromatographic fingerprint combined with biological fingerprinting. J Pharm Biomed Anal, 2011, 56:436–442
Feng X, Yan D, Zhao K J, et al. Applications of microcalorimetry in the anti-bacterial activity evaluation of varieties of Rhizoma coptidis. Pharm Biol, 2011, 49:348–353
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Additional information
These authors contributed equally to this work.
This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com
Rights and permissions
This article is published under an open access license. Please check the 'Copyright Information' section either on this page or in the PDF for details of this license and what re-use is permitted. If your intended use exceeds what is permitted by the license or if you are unable to locate the licence and re-use information, please contact the Rights and Permissions team.
About this article
Cite this article
Li, J., Yan, D., Ma, L. et al. A quality evaluation strategy for Rhizoma coptidis from a variety of different sources using chromatographic fingerprinting combined with biological fingerprinting. Chin. Sci. Bull. 58, 4092–4100 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-013-5861-8
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-013-5861-8