Study On Identification And Quality Standard Of Hippocampus

Hippocampus, with the common name of seahorse (Chinese name Haima 海马), has been used for thousands of years as an important and precious traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in China. It has been proven to possess remarkably therapeutic activities in warming kidney to invigorate yang, eliminating stagnation and subsiding swelling. Modern pharmacological study showed that Hippocampus had variously bfoactivities such as anti-oxidant, anti-tumor, anti-fatigue, anti-aging, anti-thrombus, analgesic activities, hormone-like activity and so on. The compounds of the species mainly include steroids, mineral elements, amino acids, peptide, and fatty acids etc.In China, there are five Hippocampus species have been recorded in Chinese pharmacopoeia, including Hippocampus kuda Bleeker, Hippocampus trimaculatus Leach, Hippocampus kelloggi Jordan et Snyder, Hippocampus histrix Kaup, and Hippocampus japonicus Kaup. Most of them come from the wild environment, and the quality of commodity medicinal materials varies. According to the present quality control standards, it is hard to control the quality of Hippocampus because of the Chinese pharmacopoeia only simply recorded the morphological and the microscopic characteristics on identification of Hippocampus. So, in order to ensure safety and effectively of use the Hippocampus in clinical uses, it is desperately needed to establish a stable and controllable quality evaluation method for Hippocampus. Hence, systematic researches on quality standards of Hippocampus were carried out to establish a scientific evaluation method to improve the quality standards. Based on these results, amending the new edition of Chinese Pharmacopoeia is available, and also providing scientific reference for development and utilization of Hippocampus.1. Research on Materia Medica and market researchInformation on the Hippocampus species was collected from scientific journals, books, China Fauna, thesis and reports based on the Chinese herbal classic literature and worldwide accepted scientific databases via a library and electronic search (PubMed, Elsevier, Scopus, Google Scholar, Springer, Web of Science and CNKI) aim to sort name, origin, usage and efficacy of Hippocampus, to understand the history and evolution of the Hippocampus as Traditional Chinese medicine during the thousands of years. Moreover, we took field trip, in order to clear distribution of Hippocampus in our country and provide reference for the rational development and utilization of Hippocampus. Furthermore, we collected samples of Hippocampus from the main commodity markets to master probfems on quality related to Hippocampus and then formulate corresponding quality control method.Through the above studies, we conclude that the Hippocampus and turtle with the common name Shui Ma. In addition, people are apt to confuse the different kinds of Hippocampus. The Chinese name and the Latin name should be standardized so as to avoid the confusion between the different kinds of Hippocampus. It has been recorded to treat dystocia dates back to the Liang dynasty of China. In addition, Hippocampus has been proven to possess remarkably therapeutic activities in warming kidney to invigorate yang, eliminating stagnation and subsiding swelling but is not used to treat dystocia.2. Pharmacognosy identificationA method about pharmacognosy identification characteristics of Hippocampus has been established based on the morphology and microstructure characteristics (including skin debris, striated muscle and bone fragments). In addition, the study reveals that Hippocampus spinosissimus Weber is the real resource of traditional medicine Cihaima but not the recorded Hippocampus histrix Kaup.3. Study on chemical constituentsThe chemical constituents of Hippocampus was analyzed by HPLC-MS method and found that the main components were fatty acids and sterides. Furthermore, fatty acids and sterides were analyzed in seven Hippocampus species by GC-MS technique shows that the ratio of saturated fatty acids to total fatty acids ranges from 61.18% to 93.72%, the ratio of hexadecanoic acid and octadecanoic acid to total fatty acids are nearly one-thirds. Besides, cholesterol and chlest-4-ene-3-one are major components to total steroids.4. Study on Quality Control StandardThe content of moisture, ash, extract and heavy metals were measure refer to the method of the "Chinese Pharmacopoeia" (2010 edition) in appendix. The quality standards for Hippocampu were established.In summary, the name, origin, medicinal species and usage of the Hippocampus have been presented clearly and scientific evidence for reasonable development of them was provided through this research. Morphological identification method of Hippocampus was set up. The retrieval table about feature of Hippocampus was established according to the results of the study on eight kinds of Hippocampus which provided reference for identification of Hippocampus rapid and accurate. The chemical constituents of Hippocampus was analyzed by different method and found that the main components were fatty acids and sterides. Finally, we established the quality standards for Hippocampus.