Study On Processing Technology And Quality Standards Of Arctii Fructus

The study was supported by the open project of national first class key discipline for science of Chinese Materia Medica,’The chemical mechanism research of Arctii Fructus of the chemical groups of active ingredients in vitro and in vivo’(No.2011ZYX2-013), the chemical mechanisam research achievement transformation project of Jiangsu province,’308Chinese medicine and related processing equipment integrated innovation industrialization’(BA2010024) and Nanjing science and technology development project,’Characteristic chromatograms of50flavour clinical commonly used authentic Chinese herbal medicines’(201007005) research projects.Arctii Fructus (Niubangzi in Chinese), the dried fruit of Arctium lappa L.(Asteraceae), is one of the most popular traditional Chinese medicines and a Chinese herbal medicine recorded in Chinese pharmacopoeia. It has a long history to be used for treatment of wind-heat, detoxification and swelling. The raw Arctii Fructus is rich in oil, sliding profits and has an effect of catharsis. The literature research and preliminary experimental tests shown that lignans were the main effective components in Arctii Fructus, including acrtiin and arctigenin. After processed, the content of total lignans increased with the content of arctiin decreased and arctigenin increased. So, it should be stir-fried to reduce side effects and increase efficacy.Throughout the processing history of Arctii Fructus, stir-frying is the most representative method. To search calendar version of’Chinese Pharmacopoeia’and the processing standard of Chinese Herbal Medicine in the provinces and autonomous regions, there is no unified clear technical parameters and operating standards about the processing of Arctii Fructus. In addition, the sources and uses of Arctii Fructus are more comfusing. Although quality standards of raw Arctii Fructus have been gathered in the pharmacopoeia, there are no quality standards for the processed products. So the study on processing technology and quality standards has a certain significance on the study of Arctii Fructus.Summaried the processing history of Arctii Fructus from different provinces, and the chemical constituents and pharmacological effects of Arctii Fructus, which laid a theoretical foundation for the further study of of Arctii Fructus.To study the constituents of Arctii Fructus, the ethylacetate part, the effective part of Arctii Fructus was separated and purified. To research the variation of chemical constituents in Arctii Fructus, a HPLC method and specific chromatograms were established to determine the content of arctiin and arctigenin as the active ingredients and evaluate the quality of Arctii Fructus. After processed, the content of arctigenin were increased and arctiin decreased. The fingerprint chromatograms provide rich information, which reflected the variation of chemical constituents between raw and processed Arctii Fructus. After processed, there were obvious changes between the raw and processed Arctii Fructus and the increased efficacy and reduced side effect may be related to the changes of chemical constituents.Response surface methodology (RSM) was used to investigate the influence of three variable parameters on chlorogenic acid, arctiin, and arctigenin. The main variable parameters affecting processing technology, including the temperature of pot (℃), the temperature of the medicine (℃), and the processing time (s), were optimized. Arctii Fructus should be processed under heating in a pot at311℃, with the medicine at119℃for123s with flipping frequently. The results provided a stable and consistent stir-fry processing technology based on the traditional method. This standardized processing technology was suitable for large-scale production of processed Arctii Fructus.We collected20batches of Arctii Fructus from different sources, processed by the optimized processing technology in the laboratory to enlarge the production of Arctii Fructus. According to the quality standard system, the pieces of the character identification, examination and determination of content of comprehensive research, established the objective, quantitative quality evaluation standard and the quality standard draft of Arctii Fructus.