No abstract

The classical traditional Chinese formulation LiuweiDihuang, shown to have clinical efficacy for "nourishing kidney-yin" in traditional Chinese medicine, has been used for thousands of years in China. Little attention, however, has been paid to quality control methods for this formulation. Hence, a rapid and sensitive analytical technique is urgently needed for the evaluation of LiuweiDihuang preparations to assess its quality and pharmacological functionality. In this study, an ultra high performance liquid chromatography dual-wavelength method was developed to simultaneously determine 11 constituents in LiuweiDihuang preparations. This robust approach provided a fast and comprehensive quantitative determination of the major bioactive markers within LiuweiDihuang preparations. To distinguish four dosage forms of LiuweiDihuang preparations, a random forest technique was applied on the spectrometric fingerprint data obtained. This combination approach of chromatographic techniques and data analyses might serve as a rapid and efficient tool to ensure the quality of LiuweiDihuang preparations and other Chinese medicinal formulations and can support quality control and scientific research into the pharmacological potential for these formulations.

The Lilium lancifolium Thunb. is a herb with multiple functions in both medicine and food in China, and its extracts have shown antidepressant effects. In this study, fresh bulbs of Lilium lancifolium Thunb. were processed to study the effects of different drying processes on changes in its main chemical components. We found that different drying methods can affect the chemical constituents of the herb. Among these components, Regaloside A has been found as the characteristic component. Here, Cell Counting Kit‐8 assay, and Western blotting were used to evaluate the neuroprotective antidepressant effects of Regaloside A. The results showed the cell survival rate was improved, the phosphorylation levels of brain‐derived neurotrophic factor, tyrosine kinase receptor B, phosphatidylinositol 3 kinase, protein kinase B, and mammalian target of rapamycin were increased after Regaloside A treatment. In general, different drying methods have a significant influence on the chemical composition of the herb, and Regaloside A may be the main chemical component of the herb. It can alleviate the damage of corticosterone in SH‐SY5Y cells, and phosphatidylinositol‐3‐kinase/protein kinase B/mammalian target of rapamycin signaling mediated by brain‐derived neurotrophic factor/tyrosine kinase receptor B may play an important role in the neuroprotective antidepressant effects of Regaloside A.