Yu Huanhuan, Tang Huilan, Hu Guang, Chen Zhu, Guo Mudan, Jiang Bo, Zhang En, Hu Changhua
College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400715, China.
NMPA Key Laboratory for Quality Monitoring of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, Chongqing Institute for Food and Drug Control, Chongqing, 401121, China.
Chin Med. 2023 Oct 31;18(1):141. doi: 10.1186/s13020-023-00848-z.
The clinical applications of dispensing granules (DG) have increased dramatically. However, it is controversial whether the DG has the same quality and efficacy compared with traditional decoction (TD). In this study, the contents of main compounds, hypoglycemic effects, and potential mechanism of Coptidis Rhizoma (CR) and Scutellaria-coptis (SC), constituted of a 1:1 mixture of CR and Scutellariae Radix (SR), in the forms of TD and DG were compared.
The quantitative analysis was performed on an UPLC-PDA method. The 6-weeks-old male db/db mice were used as Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) mouse modle to investigate the antidiabetic effects of CR and SC in TD form (CR TD and SC TD), as well as CR and SC in DG form (CR DG and SC DG).
The total content of five alkaloids in CR TD ranged from 71.00 to 78.62 mg, whereas in CR DG it ranged from 38.77 to 53.68 mg in CR DG per 1 g of decoction pieces. Compared to CR TD, CR DG exhibited a 36% reduction on average. For SC samples, the precipitation occurred in the processing of TD but not in the DG, and the relative ratio of alkaloids to flavonoids was determined to be 1:1 in TD and 1:2 in DG. Furthermore, the animal experiments showed that the CR DG (equivalent to 3 g decoction pieces/kg) had almost the same hypoglycemic effect as CR TD when they were administered for 6 weeks. Compared with SC DG (equivalent to 6 g decoction pieces/kg), SC TD showed a better trend in ameliorating T2DM via ameliorating pancreatic structure and function, and activating Akt/AMPK/GLUT4 signaling pathways.
This study indicated that the contents of main compounds were generally higher in CR TD than CR DG originated from the same raw materials. Additionally, changes in the contents of the primary components validated that the compound interactions are exclusive to SC TD during co-decoction, rather than SC DG. The disparate prossing of SC DG and SC TD caused differences both in chemical composition and hypoglycemic effect, suggesting that the substitutability of DG and TD requires further research.
中药配方颗粒（DG）的临床应用急剧增加。然而，与传统汤剂（TD）相比，DG是否具有相同的质量和疗效仍存在争议。本研究比较了由黄连（CR）与黄芩（SR）按1:1混合组成的黄连（CR）和黄芩黄连（SC）以TD和DG形式存在时的主要成分含量、降血糖作用及潜在机制。
采用超高效液相色谱-光电二极管阵列检测法（UPLC-PDA）进行定量分析。以6周龄雄性db/db小鼠作为2型糖尿病（T2DM）小鼠模型，研究TD形式的CR和SC（CR TD和SC TD）以及DG形式的CR和SC（CR DG和SC DG）的抗糖尿病作用。
每1g饮片，CR TD中5种生物碱的总含量在71.00至78.62mg之间，而CR DG中为38.77至53.68mg。与CR TD相比，CR DG平均降低了36%。对于SC样品，TD制备过程中出现沉淀，而DG中未出现，且TD中生物碱与黄酮类化合物的相对比例为1:1，DG中为1:2。此外，动物实验表明，CR DG（相当于3g饮片/kg）连续给药6周时，其降血糖作用与CR TD几乎相同。与SC DG（相当于6g饮片/kg）相比，SC TD通过改善胰腺结构和功能以及激活Akt/AMPK/GLUT4信号通路，在改善T2DM方面表现出更好的趋势。
本研究表明，源自相同原料的CR TD中主要成分的含量通常高于CR DG。此外，主要成分含量的变化证实，共煎过程中化合物相互作用是SC TD所特有的，而非SC DG。SC DG和SC TD的不同制备方式导致化学成分和降血糖作用均存在差异，这表明DG和TD的可替代性需要进一步研究。
