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TCIM Research

Valentina Naumovski (2020-2021 WINNER)

Published on 10/1/2023

Chromatographic, Chemometric and Antioxidant Assessment of the Equivalence of Granules and Herbal Materials of Angelicae sinensis Radix


Valentina Razmovski-Naumovski1,2,3, Xian Zhou2, Ho Yee Wong3, Antony Kam3,4, Jarryd Pearson2, Kelvin Chan2,3,5

Affiliations:
1 South Western Sydney Clinical School, School of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney 2052, Australia.
2 NICM Health Research Institute, Western Sydney University, Penrith NSW 2751, Australia.
3 School of Pharmacy, The University of Sydney, A15, Science Rd, Camperdown NSW 2006, Australia
4 School of Biological Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, 60 Nanyang Drive, Singapore 63755, Singapore.
5 School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool L3 3AF, UK.

Abstract

Background: Granules are a popular way of administrating herbal decoctions. However, there are no standardised quality control methods for granules, with few studies comparing the granules to traditional herbal decoctions. This study developed a multi-analytical platform to compare the quality of granule products to herb/decoction pieces of Angelicae Sinensis Radix (Danggui). 

Methods: A validated ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled with photodiode array detector (UPLC-PDA) method quantitatively compared the aqueous extracts. Hierarchical agglomerative clustering analysis (HCA) and principal component analysis (PCA) clustered the samples according to three chemical compounds: ferulic acid, caffeic acid and Z-ligustilide. Ferric ion-reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) and 2,2-Diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl radical scavenging capacity (DPPH) assessed the antioxidant activity of the samples. 

Results: HCA and PCA allocated the samples into two main groups: granule products and herb/decoction pieces. Greater differentiation between the samples was obtained with three chemical markers compared to using one marker. The herb/decoction pieces group showed comparatively higher extraction yields and significantly higher DPPH and FRAP (p < 0.05), which was positively correlated to caffeic acid and ferulic acid, respectively. 

Conclusions: The results confirm the need for the quality assessment of granule products using more than one chemical marker for widespread practitioner and consumer use.

https://doi.org/10.3390/medicines7060035

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