Traditional Chinese medicine formula granules (TCMFGs), an advanced dosage form of traditional Chinese medicine, are entering the market on a large scale. However, little attention has been paid to the simultaneous efficacy assessment and quality control of this advanced dosage form. In this study, a comprehensive comparison of the pharmacological activity and chemical consistency of TCMFGs from different manufacturers was performed. Ge-Gen decoction (GGD) samples were used as the target TCMFG. The in vitro anti-inflammatory effects among different types of GGDs indicate that all of them showed different abilities to reduce the lipopolysaccharide-activated production of nitric oxide, interleukin-1β (IL-1β), IL-6 and tumor necrosis factor-α. The results from a dimethylbenzene-induced inflammation model in mice indicated that the nine samples in this study showed significant in vivo anti-inflammatory effects. Qualitative and quantitative analyses were performed by multiwavelength ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography with diode array detection and electrospray ionization with quadrupole time-of-flight-tandem mass spectrometry. To visually interpret the differences in the chemical materials, a scatter plot analysis was performed. According to the scatter plot analysis, nine compounds were evaluated as important contributors to the differences. This is the first report of TCMFGs on the basis of the spectrum-effect consistency.

On the basis of run semantics and breadth-first algebraic semantics, the algebraic characterizations for a classes of formal power series over complete strong bimonoids are investigated in this paper. As recognizers, weighted pushdown automata with final states (WPDAs for short) and empty stack (WPDAs) are shown to be equivalent based on run semantics. Moreover, it is demonstrated that for every WPDA there is an equivalent crisp-simple weighted pushdown automaton with final states by run semantics if the underlying complete strong bimonoid satisfies multiplicatively local finiteness condition. As another type of generators, weighted context-free grammars over complete strong bimonoids are introduced, which are proven to be equivalent to WPDAs based on each one of both run semantics and breadth-first algebraic semantics. Finally examples are presented to illuminate the proposed methods and results.

Furosemide is a widely used loop diuretic in the treatment of congestive heart failure and edema. During the preparation of furosemide, a new process-related impurity G in the levels ranging from 0.08% to 0.13% was detected in pilot batches by a new high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method. The new impurity was isolated and characterized by comprehensive analysis of FT-IR, Q-TOF/LC-MS, 1D-NMR (1H, 13C, and DEPT), and 2D-NMR (1H-1H-COSY, HSQC, and HMBC) spectroscopy data. The possible formation pathway of impurity G was also discussed in detail. Moreover, a novel HPLC method was developed and validated for the determination of impurity G and the other six known impurities registered in the European Pharmacopoeia as per ICH guidelines. The HPLC method was validated with respect to system suitability, linearity, the limit of quantitation, the limit of detection, precision, accuracy, and robustness. The characterization of impurity G and the validation of its quantitative HPLC method were reported for the first time in this paper. Finally, the toxicological properties of impurity G were predicted by the in silico webserver ProTox-II.

Oxycodone is one of the most prescribed narcotic medications for the treatment of moderate to severe pain in clinical practice. During long-term stability studies of oxycodone hydrochloride for injection performed...