The Antihyperlipidemia Function Research And Security Evaluation Of The Flower Of Coptis Chinensis Franch.

Coptis chinensis Franch. is a traditional Chinese herbal medicine, which is a kind of plant that can be harvested every five years. It has been used as an important medicine for more than 2000 years in Chinese history. Coptis chinensis Franch. has a wide range of pharmacological functions, such as release heat, detoxification, anti-inflammatory, antivirus, lowering hyperglycemia, anti-hyperlipidemia, antitumour, etc. Shizhu Country in Chongqing is the biggest GMP base of planting Coptis chinensis Franch. in China. The output of Coptis chinensis Franch in Shizhu is about 1,200,000～1,500,000Kg per year, which is nearly 60％of that in China, and about 40％of that in the world.In all parts of the plant, only the rhizome is traditionally used as a medicine, the flower is only a by-product in the planting of Coptis chinensis Franch.. The Coptis blossoms from the second year after beening planted. The excessive growth of flower is believed to reduce the yield of Coptis rhizome. In order to raise the output of rhizome, the planters usually remove most of the flower from the plant every year. Up to now, most of the removed flower is discarded in the field.The report about Coptis rhizome on its planting, component analyzing, pharmacology is exhaustive. But the research on the flower of Coptis chinensis Franch. （FCC） is rare. Our primary analyse showed that the chemical components of FCC were similar to the rhizome. This clews that FCC would have the same pharmacological function as the rhizome. The output of FCC in the base is about 300,000Kg per year. If we can exploit and utilize this resource, great economic and social benefit will be brought out.In this paper, the content of functional component, such as alkaloid, amino acid and mineral elements, in FCC was determined. The antihyperlipidemia function of FCC was studied by animal experiment. The security of FCC was evaluated by acute toxicity test, Ames test, sperm abnormality test, bone marrow cell micronucleus test and ninety days feeding study. The experiment results are showed as follows:（1） The content of total alkaloid and berberine in FCC is respectively 1.31％and 0.41％.（2） The flower is abundant in amino acids, which is 17.53％in dried flower, and the essential amino acids is 39.1％of total amino acids. （3） The flower is also abundant in mineral elements. The contents of K, Ca, Fe, Mg, Cu, Zn, Mn, Ni are 2893, 870.33, 572.5, 1137, 16.33, 208.6.7, 11.67, 0.013mg·Kg^-1, respectively. The content of Pb is 0.06mg·Kg^-1, which is lower than the national limiting standards of Pb in food.（4） The aqueous extract of FCC has a significant effect on lowering serum TC, TG and LDL-C of experimental hyperlipidemia rat, increasing HDL-C. It can inhibit the deposition of fat in the enterocelia and liver. It can also decrease the arteriosclerosis index（TC/HDL-C and LDL-C/HDL-C） effectively.（5） Histological inspection indicated that the FCC extract can inhibit the deposition of fat granule in the liver of hyperlipidemia rat. The size of fat granule can also be affected.（6） LD₅₀ of FCC is bigger than 21.5g·Kg^-1, that is, FCC has no actue toxicity.（7） In Ames test, sperm abnormality test, bone marrow cell micronucleus test and ninety days feeding study, there’s no significant difference on measured index between the dosage groups and the normal control.