The Studies On Parching Process And Quality Assessment Of Semen Cassiae

Semen Cassiae comes from dried seed of Leguminosae plant Cassia obtusifolia L.or Cassia tora L..Currently,the one mainly used in clinical is its raw and parched.It has been proved in now researches that the effect of diarrhea is decreased after parching because the compounds of anthraquinones are partly destroyed.In clinical the parched Semen Cassiae is often used in the treatment of hyperlipemia,hypertension,the impairment of liver and kidney,glaucoma, cataract,headache and dizziness etc.The raw Semen Cassiae is used mostly in astriction and inflammation of the eye.According to People's Republic of China Pharmacopoeia(ChP)(2005,VolⅠ) and related criterion in traditional Chinese medicine,parching Semen Cassiae is only described as the surface plumping with slight aroma.The physical and chemical identification to distinguish raw and parched Semen Cassiae is not available for use。In our study,Semen Cassiae is processed under different temperature and time so that the appearance accord with the criterion of ChP.The Semen Cassiae was extracted on the basis of different polarity with ethyl acetate first and then methanol so as to establish the TLC and HPLC fingerprints respectively for Semen Cassia before and after processing,in which the change of polar and lipophilic components would described.The content of free chrysophanol and physcion were determined by HPLC,and some of polar components in the fingerprints are identified by HPLC-MS.Seven lipophilic components including emodin,chrysophanol and physcion were separated very well in TLC fingerprint of lipophilic constituents.The color of lipophilic components in parched Semen Cassiae is deeper than that of components in the raw.There is significant difference in the polar components' TLC fingerprints between raw and parched Semen Cassiae.As compared with the raw,a new orange-red spot appears in TLC fingerprints of parched Semen Cassiae.The color of two spots change obviously and that of others are also deeper in TLC fingerprints of parched Semen Cassiae.The method is simple and reproducible for TLC fingerprint of polar components.It reflects the changes of chemical composition after processing.A beneficial reference is offered for physical and chemical identification method of the raw and parched Semen Cassiae.After processing it was found that all kinds of lipophilic components were increased significantly and a new composition had produced by the HPLC fingerprint about lipophilic components.The new chromatographic peak to show in the HPLC fingerprint of processed Semen Cassiae can be used as the characteristic identification between raw and processed products.The results revealed that lipophilic composition and contents had changed after processing under different processing conditions.The results also suggested that the changes of processing conditions affect on the amount of lipophilic components at different degree.The HPLC fingerprint of polar components from raw and processed Semen Cassia showed that a new compound produced after processing and the amounts of polarity components were decrease obviously.The results showed that the amount of polar components decrease with longer parching time at same temperature.With higher temperature,the amount of polar components will decrease more during same parching time.On the basis of this fingerprint,the structure of typical chromatographic peaks were identified by HPLC-MS,in which revealed the changes of cassiasideB,cassiasideB2,cassiasideC,cassiaside,rubrofusarin-6-O-β- gentiobioside,nor-rubrofusarin-6-O-β- gentiobioside,Chrysophanol -6-O-β-D- glucopyranosyl-(1→6) -O-β-D-glucopyranosyl-(1→3) -O-β-D- glucopyranoside,Chrysophanol-6-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl-(1→6) -O-β-D-glucopyranosyl-(1→3) -O-β-D- glucopyranosyl-(1→6) -O-β-D-glucopyranoside in the process of parching.The fingerprints of TLC and HPLC had been established,in which the characteristics of chemical components was showed about Semen Cassiae before and after processing,while a good method was provided for identificating the raw and parched Semen Cassiae.The helpful reference was introduced for quality standard of Semen Cassiae and parching operation.