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Background: Radix Aconiti Lateralis (Fuzi), a mono‐herbal preparation of Aconitum herbs in the genus Aconitum, is commonly used in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) to treat critical illnesses. The curative effect of Fuzi is remarkable. However, the toxic effects of Fuzi are still a key clinical focus, and the substances inducing nephrotoxicity are still unclear. Therefore, this study proposes a research model combining "in vitro and in vivo component mining‐virtual multi‐target screening‐active component prediction‐literature verification" to screen potential nephrotoxic substances rapidly. Method: The UHPLC‐Q‐Exactive‐Orbitrap MS analysis method was used for the correlation analysis of Fuzi's in vitro–in vivo chemical substance groups. On this basis, the key targets of nephrotoxicity were screened by combining online disease databases and a protein–protein interaction (PPI) network. The computer screening technique was used to verify the binding mode and affinity of Fuzi's components with nephrotoxic targets. Finally, the potential material basis of Fuzi‐induced nephrotoxicity was screened. Results: Eighty‐one Fuzi components were identified. Among them, 35 components were absorbed into the blood. Based on the network biology method, 21 important chemical components and three potential key targets were screened. Computer virtual screening revealed that mesaconine, benzoylaconine, aconitine, deoxyaconitine, hypaconitine, benzoylhypaconine, benzoylmesaconine, and hypaconitine may be potential nephrotoxic substances of Fuzi. Conclusions: Fuzi may interact with multiple components and targets in the process of inducing nephrotoxicity. In the future, experiments can be designed to explore further. This study provides a reference for screening Fuzi nephrotoxic components and has certain significance for the safe use of Fuzi. The study screened 21 components of Fuzi for potential nephrotoxicity. These components induce renal injury in rats by acting on multiple targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rechargeable aluminum battery (RAB) is expected to be a promising energy storage technique for grid‐scale energy storage. However, the development of RABs is seriously plagued by the lack of suitable cathode materials. Herein, we report two p‐type conjugated polymers of L‐PBPz and C‐PBPz with the same building blocks of diphenylphenazine but different linkage patterns of linear and crosslinked structures as the cathode materials for Al dual‐ion batteries. Compared to the linear polymer skeleton in L‐PBPz, the crosslinked structure endows C‐PBPz with amorphous nature and low dihedral angles of the polymer chains, which severally contribute to the fast diffusion of AlCl4− with large size and the electron transfer during the redox reaction of diphenylphenazine. As a result, C‐PBPz delivers a much better rate performance than L‐PBPz. The crosslinked structure also leads to a stable cyclability with over 80000 cycles for C‐PBPz. Benefiting from the fast kinetics, meanwhile, the C‐PBPz cathode could realize a high redox activity of 117 mAh g−1, corresponding to an areal capacity of 2.30 mAh cm−2, even under a high mass loading of 19.7 mg cm−2 and a low content of 10 wt% conductive agent. These results might boost the development of polymer cathodes for RABs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two-dimensional correlation spectroscopy (2DCOS) was employed for the identification of ephedrine (Ep) and pseudoephedrine (Ps) present in illegally adulterated slimming herbal products (SHPs). Second derivative (SD) spectral pretreatment was used prior to 2DCOS analysis to highlight specific features not readily observable by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), SD-FTIR, or original 2DCOS, leading to enhanced resolution and a reduced lower limit of detection (<1% in this study). After examining the power spectra of suspicious SHPs, bands containing characteristic peaks for Ep (701, 747, 1042, 1363, 1375, 1451, 1478 cm-1etc) and/or Ps (703, 767, 1037, 1375, 1428, 1455, 1590 cm-1, etc.) were selected to construct synchronous and asynchronous maps for further analysis, while the latter was applied to discriminate positive SHPs adulterated simultaneously with Ep and Ps. The proposed method is simple and economical and has the potential to identify other chemicals in illegally adulterated herbal products. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rhizoma Smilacis Glabrae (RSG) is a well-known herbal medicine with the homology of medicine and food. In this study, simultaneous chemical fingerprint and quantitative analysis of the bioactive flavonoid components of RSG were developed using accelerated solvent extraction and high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with ion trap tandem mass spectrometry. The operational parameters of accelerated solvent extraction including extraction solvent, extraction temperature, static extraction time, solid-to-liquid ratio, and extraction cycles were optimized. Hierarchical cluster analysis, similarity analysis, and principal component analysis were performed to evaluate the similarity and variation of the samples collected from several provinces in China. Subsequently, high-performance liquid chromatography fingerprints were established for the discrimination of 16 batches of RSG samples, and the major six flavonoids, namely, toxifolin, neoastilbin, astilbin, neoisoastilbin, isoastilbin, and engeletin were then quantitatively determined. The calibration curves for all the six analytes showed good linearity ( r2 > 0.999), and the limits of detection and quantification were less than 0.10 and 0.27 μg·mL−1, respectively. Therefore, the proposed extraction and determination methods were proved to be robust and reliable for the quality control of RSG. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Silymarin extracted from Silybum marianum (L.) Gaertn consists of a large number of flavonolignans, of which diastereoisomeric flavonolignans including silybin A and silybin B, and isosilybin A and isosilybin B are the main bioactive components, whose preparation from the crude extracts is still a difficult task. In this work, binary-column recycling preparative high-performance liquid chromatography systems without sample loop trapping, where two columns were switched alternately via one or two six-port switching valves, were established and successfully applied to the isolation and purification of the four diastereoisomeric flavonolignans from silymarin. The proposed system showed significant advantages over conventional preparative high-performance liquid chromatography with a single column in increasing efficiency and reducing the cost. To obtain the same amounts of products, the proposed system spends only one tenth of the time that the conventional system spends, and needs only one eleventh of the solvent that the conventional system consumes. Using the proposed system, the four diastereoisomers were successfully isolated from silymarin with purities over 98%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although various techniques have been employed to analyze drug metabolites, the metabolism of multicomponent herbal medicine has seldom been fully addressed. In contrast to chemical drugs, a number of compounds in herbal medicine could get into circulation and then be metabolized. Metabolism study on active constituents in herbal medicine is a good way for us to explain and predict a variety of events related to the efficacy and toxicity of herbal medicine. The present work aims to elucidate the multicomponent metabolic characteristics of a herbal medicine by the combination of plasma pharmacochemistry and microdialysis sampling. Anemarrhena asphodeloides, a well-known traditional Chinese medicine, was chosen as a model. After oral administration of A. asphodeloides saponin extract to rats, microdialysis samples were collected continuously in the jugular vein and analyzed by ultrahigh-performance LC/quadrupole- TOF MS. The identification of compounds in biosamples was achieved by accurate mass measurement and detailed fragmentation pathway analysis. The results showed that unbound constituents in blood circulation of the rat included seven parent saponins and six metabolites, which might be the potential active components in vivo. Among which, three metabolites have not been previously reported and were identified in this study. It is the first report on systemic metabolism of total saponins of A. asphodeloides in mammalian plasma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the work presented here, a novel approach to comprehensive two-dimensional liquid chromatography is evaluated. Reversed-phase liquid chromatography was employed for the first-dimension separation and polyamine chromatography was chosen for the second-dimension separation mode. The two dimensions are highly orthogonal and the separation efficacy of the developed octadecylsilica × polyamine was tested by separating an extract from Anemarrhena asphodeloides. The steroid glycosides identified by comprehensive two-dimensional liquid chromatography in this experiment were compared to those obtained for monodimensional liquid chromatography. The comprehensive two-dimensional liquid chromatography system, thanks to the complementary separation selectivity and enhanced peak capacity provided by the two columns, allowed to distribute five compounds of low amounts otherwise unachievable by monodimensional liquid chromatography. In addition, four steroid isomers with similar fragmentation characteristics in MS/MS spectra, were newly separated based on their different chemical structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A cyclodextrin-modified micellar electrokinetic chromatography (CD-MEKC) method was established for the determination of oleanolic acid and ursolic acid in cornel. The two components were separated in the running buffer of 40 mmol/L sodium borate containing 5% methanol, 25 mmol/L SDS and 15 mmol/L hydroxypropyl- β-cyclodextrin (HP- β-CD). The applied voltage was 24 kV. The wavelength of detection was 200 nm. The temperature was kept at 25C. Cinnamic acid was used as the internal standard. The analytical performance of the method was tested with respect to linearity, precision and recovery. The calibration curves were linear in the range of 10.15-243.6 µg/mL, r = 0.9993 (oleanolic acid) and 10.07-241.7 µg/mL, r = 0.9994 (ursolic acid); the intra-day precision (RSD) was less than 3.7% (oleanolic acid) and 4.1% (ursolic acid); the inter-day precision (RSD) was less than 4.2% (oleanolic acid) and 4.9% (ursolic acid). The limits of detection were 1.6 µg/mL for both components. The method proved to be sensitive, rapid, accurate and suitable for the determination of oleanolic acid and ursolic acid in cornel. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]