| Artemisiae Argyi Folium(AAF)is a traditional crude drug which originates from Artemisia argyi Lévl.et Vant.(Compositae).It was recorded in multiple editions of Chinese Pharmacopoeia,could be used for treatment of irregular menstruation,uterine cold infertility,hematemesis,nosebleed,metrorrhagia and skin itch.It's also the raw material for the famous moxibustion therapy,many pharmaceutical preparations and health care products.In the Korea Herbal Pharmacopeia,Artemisiae Argyi Herb consisted of AAF and dried leaves of Artemisia princeps Pampanini(Artemisia princeps Pampanini var.orientis Hara)and Artemisia montana Pampanini.In the Japanese Pharmacopeia,Artemisia leaf consisted of the latter two.As an internationally recognized geo-authentic crude drug of AAF,“Qi Ai” mainly grows in Qichun County and the adjacent areas(named “Qizhou” in ancient China),Hubei province,China.At present,the quality of AAF and many of its products is significantly different due to lack of the comprehensive and systematic quality evaluation method.Therefore,the plant shape,macroscopic characteristics,microscopic characteristics and thin layer chromatogram(TLC)among AAF and its two similar drugs were compared and analyzed in this study.The samples of AAF were collected from more than 30 places in China and Korea,and those of the two similar drugs from Korea and Japan.The contents of effective substances(volatile oil,cineole,total flavonoids and tannins)were determined in samples which were collected in different places on the same harvest time(the Dragon Boat Festival in 2014)and in “Qi Ai” samples collected in different time.The HPLC fingerprint of AAF was established and compared with those of the other two similar drugs.In addition,the contents related to the quality of AAF were studied.The results of studies on macroscopic identification of AAF and the other two similar drugs showed that they had some obvious features respectively.The upper surface of the former had pubescence,denser glandular dots and small pits,while the latter two drugs had not.And the three plant drugs could be identified according to the difference in shape and size of blade,blade splitting,lobes and other aspects.Refering to the relevant records in Chinese pharmacopoeia and Hong Kong Chinese Materials Standard(the fifth edition),further researches on microscopic and TLC identification of the three drugs were done.The powders microscopic characteristics of them were similar among themselves,with T-shaped hairs,uniseriate soft hairs and glandular hairs.But there were differences in the quantity of T-shaped hairs,and the morphology,length,diameter of the terminal cell and the size of calcium oxalate crystals.The results of TLC showed that the AAF test solution,the reference drug solution and reference solution had corresponding spots with the same Rf and same colors.TLC of AAF and the other two similar drugs had much similarity.They all had four main spots,including the reference substance caryophyllene oxide.But they could be identified according the differences in the other chromatographic spots with different color or location(Rf).Taking many batches of AAF samples collected from different places but the same harvest time,and “Qi Ai” samples from the same place but different harvest time,the contents of effective substances including volatile oil,total flavonoids and tannins were determined respectively.The results showed that the samples with the highest contents were all from Qichun county,Hubei province,China.The their average contents in the samples from Qichun were significantly higher than the test samples from the other nine provinces in China and the samples from Korea.This verified experimentally that “Qi Ai” had excellent quality.There were no obvious contents differences of the essential oils in the “Qi Ai” samples of different harvest time.But the total flavonoids content increased with the plant growth and reached the highest level in early-June.Great differences were found in the contents of tannins,and the content reached maximum level in late-May or early-June.Considering the quality and yield of AAF,the optimum harvest time should be at early-June.The HPLC fingerprint of AAF with same harvest period and different producing area was established and the fingerprint of AAF and the other two similar drugs were compared in this research.The HPLC common pattern of 12 AAF samples was established and the similarities were evaluated useing the similarity evaluation software.The results indicated that there were 11 common peaks in the chromatograms of AAF and the similarities of all the samples were all more than 0.920,while the similarities of all the two similar drugs samples were all less than 0.720.As a result,the three plant drugs could be distinguished by their fingerprints.A series of researches about the examination of moisture,total ash,acid-insoluble ash,dilute ethanol-soluble extract,content determination of cineole in AAF were carried out and the relevant limit values were proposed for the quality control.On the basis of researches about the macroscopic and microscopic identification,TLC,content determination of the effective substances,HPLC fingerprint in AAF as well as the two similar drugs,we have provided some methods for identifying and evaluating quality of the AAF together with the two similar drugs,verified the geoherbalism of “Qi Ai”,determined the optimal harvest time of AAF.What's more,the all researches have offered more comprehensive methods and indicators than Chinese Pharmacopoeia(2015)to identify and control quality of AAF,provided detailed experimental methods and data,laid the good foundation for making international standard of AAF(ISO 20759). |
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