Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, The First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University, Guangzhou, 510632, China.
Formula-pattern Research Center, School of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jinan University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510632, China.
Rapid Commun Mass Spectrom. 2020 Sep 30;34(18):e8823. doi: 10.1002/rcm.8823.
Traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs) attract worldwide attention because of their effects in clinical application recorded in China historical ancient codes and in records, such as 'Treatise on Febrile Diseases'. With the developments of drug analysis and research, evaluating the in vivo substances in TCMs has become of great importance. Scutellariae Radix (SR, named as huang-qing in China), the root of Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi, has shown favorable clinical effects and safety in the treatment of infection diseases; however, its in vivo compounds are unclear and need detailed investigation.
An ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography/quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC/QTOF MS) method coupled to an integrated strategy involving diagnostic ions, neutral losses and a prediction platform was used to explore the constituents of SR, and their exogenous substances in rats.
A total of 118 chemical constituents mainly featuring five chemical structure types (flavone C-glycosides, flavone O-glycosides, free flavones, flavanones and phenylethanoid glycosides) were identified or tentatively characterized in SR, and 175 xenobiotics (68 prototypes and 107 metabolites) were profiled in rat plasma, urine, bile and feces after ingestion of SR. The metabolites were classified into four related chemical groups: flavone C-glycosides, flavone O-glycosides, flavanones and phenylethanoid glycosides. Phase II metabolism reactions, such as glucuronidation and sulfation, were the major metabolic reactions in addition to phase I reactions of hydrolysis and hydrogenation. The corresponding main metabolic features of SR in rats were also elucidated.
The metabolism of SR, as a whole, was systemically revealed for the first time, and our work also provided meaningful information for pharmacokinetics studies and pharmacological analysis of SR in future work.
传统中药（TCM）因其在中国古代典籍和《伤寒论》等记载中的临床应用效果而受到全球关注。随着药物分析和研究的发展，评估 TCM 中的体内物质变得非常重要。黄芩（SR），即中国的黄芩，是黄芩的根，在治疗感染性疾病方面显示出良好的临床效果和安全性；然而，其体内化合物尚不清楚，需要详细研究。
采用超高效液相色谱/四极杆飞行时间质谱（UHPLC/QTOF MS）法结合包含诊断离子、中性丢失和预测平台的综合策略，探索 SR 及其在大鼠体内的外源性物质的成分。
共鉴定或初步鉴定了 SR 中的 118 种化学成分，主要为五种化学结构类型（黄酮 C-糖苷、黄酮 O-糖苷、游离黄酮、黄烷酮和苯乙醇苷），并在大鼠摄入 SR 后，在血浆、尿液、胆汁和粪便中检测到 175 种外源性物质（68 种原型和 107 种代谢物）。代谢物分为四类相关化学组：黄酮 C-糖苷、黄酮 O-糖苷、黄烷酮和苯乙醇苷。除水解和氢化等 I 相反应外，II 相代谢反应，如葡萄糖醛酸化和硫酸化，是主要的代谢反应。还阐明了 SR 在大鼠体内的相应主要代谢特征。
首次系统地揭示了 SR 的代谢情况，我们的工作也为今后 SR 的药代动力学研究和药理学分析提供了有意义的信息。
