Planta Med 2014; 80 - P1M2
DOI: 10.1055/s-0034-1394569

Analysis of the Traditional Chinese Medicine formulation Bai Zhu Huang Qi Tang and its major constituents by TLC and LC-MS

S Nikles 1, A Lu 2, Y Min 3, G De-an 3, R Bauer 1
  • 1Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Department of Pharmacognosy, University of Graz, Universitätsplatz 4/I, A-8010 Graz, Austria
  • 2School of Chinese Medicine, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China
  • 3Shanghai Research Center for Modernization of Traditional Chinese Medicine, National Engineering Laboratory for TCM Standardization Technology, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Haike Road 501, Shanghai 201203, China

Bai Zhu Huang Qi Tang is a classical TCM formulation which has been traditionally used for the treatment of ulcerative colitis. The formula is a mixture of three herbs consisting of 9 g Glycyrrhizae radix (Gan Cao), 21 g Astragali radix (Huang Qi) and 30 g Atractylodes macrocephalae rhizoma (Bai Zhu). Aim of this analysis was the comparison of the metabolic profiles of the mixture and of the three single herbs by developing suitable TLC and HPLC methods, including LC-DAD-MS/MS. Decoctions of the single herbs and of the mixture have been fractionated with n-hexane, dichloromethane, ethylacetate and butanol and have been compared with the n-hexane, dichloromethane and methanol extracts of the single herbs and of the mixture prepared by Accelerated Solvent Extraction (ASE). All fractions and extracts have been analysed by TLC and LC-MS in order to trace G. radix, A. radix and A. macrocephalae rhizoma in Bai Zhu Huang Qi Tang. As a result constituents of each herb have been identified in the extracts and could be assigned in the chemical profiles of the formula. Gan Cao (G. radix), a minor component of Bai Zhu Huang Qi Tang, seems to be a very important part of the formulation because most of the assigned constituents in the formula are derived from this herb.