Simultaneous quantification and splenocyte-proliferating activities of nucleosides and bases in Cervi cornu Pantotrichum

Ying Zong; Yu Wang; Hang Li; Na Li; Hui Zhang; Jiaming Sun; Xiaohui Niu; Xiaochen Gao

Articles

Abstract

Pharmacognosy Magazine,2014,10,40,391-397.

DOI:10.4103/0973-1296.141757

Published:September 2014

Type:Original Article

Authors:

Author(s) affiliations:

Ying Zong¹, Yu Wang², Hang Li³, Na Li³, Hui Zhang³, Jiaming Sun³, Xiaohui Niu⁴, Xiaochen Gao³
¹ Development Center of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Bioengineering, Changchun University of Chinese Medicine; College of Chinese Medicinal Materials, Jilin Agricultural University, Changchun, China
² Tianjin Tasly Institute, Chinese Botanical R and D Institute, Tianjin, China
³ Development Center of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Bioengineering, Changchun University of Chinese Medicine, Changchun, China
⁴ School of Chemistry and Life Science, Changchun University of Technology, Changchun, China

Abstract:

Background: Cervi Cornu Pantotrichum has been a well known traditional Chinese medicine, which is young horn of Cervus Nippon Temminck (Hualurong: HLR). At present, the methods used for the quality control of Cervi Cornu Pantotrichum show low specificity. Objective: To describe a holistic method based on chemical characteristics and splenocyte-proliferating activities to evaluate the quality of HLR. Materials and Methods: The nucleosides and bases from HLR were identified by high performance liquid chromatography electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (HPLC-ESI-MS), and six of them were chosen to be used for simultaneous HPLC quantiﬁcation according to the results of proliferation of mouse splenocytes in vitro. Results: In this study, eight nucleosides and bases have been identified. In addition, uracil, hypoxanthine, uridine, inosine, guanosine, and adenosine were chosen to be used for simultaneous HPLC quantiﬁcation. Simultaneous quantiﬁcation of these six substances was performed on ten groups of HLR under the condition of a TIANHE Kromasil C ₁₈ column (5 μm, 4.6 mm × 250 mm i.d.) and a gradient elution of water and acetonitrile. Of the ten groups, HLR displayed the highest total nucleoside contents (TNC, sum of adenosine and uracil, 0.412 mg/g) with the strongest splenocyte-proliferating activities. Conclusion: These results suggest that TNC (such as particularly highly contained adenosine and uracil) in HLR has a certain correlation with the activity of splenocyte-proliferating, and it may be used as a quality control for HLR. This comprehensive method could be applied to other traditional Chinese medicines to ameliorate their quality control.