Effect Of Processing On Atractylodes Macrocephala: An Investigation Using NMR-Based Chemometrics

The rhizome of Atractylodes macrocephala Koidz (Bai-Zhu in Chinese), a valuable Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), has been used for thousands of years because of its special pharmacological activities. It is an important ingredient in several Chinese herbal prescriptions, and has been used for treatment of diarrhea, abdominal pain, and other symptoms [1]. In TCM clinics, four forms of processed slices of rhizome are used, which are prepared by four different processing methods, i.e. stir-fried, fried with earth, fried with wheat bran, and stir-fried to brown. In TCM theories, different Bai-zhu processed products process significantly different therapeutic effects. In the present study, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) combined with chemometric analysis [2] was applied to gain insights on the effect of processing factors (method, heating temperature and duration) on the change of chemical composition. The results indicated that the composition changed significantly, particularly when processing at the higher temperature. The components that changed significantly during the processing were identified. The trends of composition change for the four different processing methods showed similarities. The study demonstrated that a nuclear magnetic resonance-based chemometric approach could be a promising tool for investigation of the processing of herbal medicines in traditional Chinese medicine.

Acknowledgements: This work was supported in part by the United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Specific Cooperative Agreement No. 58-6408-1-603-07.

References: [1] Zhang, J., C. Wen, et al. (2014). Pharmacogn Mag 10: 249 – 253. [2] Zhao, J., Wang, M. et al. (2015) Planta Med.81:754 – 764