Analysis Of Element Contents In Fourteen Anti-tumor Chinese Traditional Medicines And Study The Classification Based On Elements

Objective: Chinese Traditional Medicine is our traditional medicine and the treasure of Chinese nation. In present, it's an important subject in pharmaceutical research and life science to study and discover the elements in Chinese Traditional Medicines. In this paper, Chinese Traditional Medicines for clearing heat and resolving toxin and treating the toxifying disease with poisonous agents were selected, the human essential elements and poisonous elements in medicines were detected, and to investigate the association between the element contents and the flavor, nature and efficacy of these medicines, and to develop a new method of classification for the Chinese Traditional Medicine. On the other hand, the radial elements were detected firstly by the method.Method: Fourteen Chinese traditional medicines were dried to constant weight in an oven overnight at 105℃, and were powdered before analysis. 0.1g of samples and 5mL of nitric acid were mixed, and sitting at room temperature for an hour. The contents were transfer to 50 mL volumetric flasks after digested completely, and the solutions were brought up to mark with 2% HNO3. The last solution was used for detection. 26 sorts of elements were determined by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), the data from nineteen elements were cluster analyzed with SPSS11.5 software package, and the mean between the medicine clearing heat and resolving toxin and treating the toxifying disease with poisonous agents were compared.Result: 14 kinds of Chinese Traditional Medicines have V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, and Mo etc human essential elements, and Na, Mg, K, Ca are abundant. The distribution of the same human essential elements in different Chinese Traditional Medicines were not quite the same, the highest may be 10 times of the lowest, event to 100 times. There was varying degree difference of elements in medicines clearing heat and resolving toxin and treating the toxifying disease with poisonous agents, among them, significant deviation (P<0.05)of the contents of K, Cr, Co were found between the medicines of treating the toxifying disease with poisonous agents and the medicines of heat-clearing and detoxifying, and the significant deviation were not found(P>0.05) between the botanic medicines and creatural medicines except Se. The contents of Se in botanic medicines were below the limits of detection, but that in creatural medicines can be detected except Mylabris. The contents of Pb, Ge, Hg, As, U, Th and Tl in the two kinds of Chinese Traditional Medicines are low, and the content of Pb in Chinese Traditional Medicines for clearing heat and resolving toxin was higher significantly than that in the medicines for treating the toxifying disease with poisonous agents(P<0.05), the content of Hg in botanic medicines was lower significantly than that in creatural medicines(P<0.05). 14 kinds of Chinese Traditional Medicines were sorted into two categories, which matched the cluster divided by the nature and flavor of Traditional Chinese Medicine. When correlation coefficient(r) was exceeded 0.80, cluster in two kinds of medicines are similar, when r>0.70, cluster in two pairs of medicines are similar.Conclusion: It's reliable to cluster analysis the Chinese Traditional Medicines by regarding the element contents as the character of these medicines. The larger the correlation coefficient is, the more similar the nature, flavor and efficacy of the medicines are, which suggested that trace element contents were closely related to the flavor, nature and efficacy. The study provides quantitative analysis Chinese Traditional Medicines. K, Cr, Co may play important roles for clearing heat and resolving toxin; The nature, flavor and efficacy are different, the contents of elements in Chinese Traditional Medicines are different too, the elements may participate in the nature, flavor and efficacy of Chinese Traditional Medicines by some morphologies (inorganic elements and /or organic elements). The contents of Pb, Ge, Hg, As, U, Th and Tl in Lathyrids, Semen Strychni, Mylabris and Venenum Bufonis etc noxious medicines are low, and it conjectures that the toxicity of elements may not accumulate the original toxic efficacy of the Chinese Traditional Medicines.