Study On Quality Evaluation And Characteristics Of Guangling Huangqi

Topic Basis:Astragali Radix(AR)is the dried root of Astragalus membranaceus(Fisch.)Bge.or Astragalus membranaceus(Fisch.)Bge.var.mongholicus(Bge.)Hsiao in the leguminous family.As a mainstream commodity,Mongolian AR is mainly distributed in Shanxi,Shaanxi,Inner Mongolia,Gansu and Ningxia,and the planting methods include seedling transplanting and sowing seeds imitation wild cultivation.As we all know,Shanxi is the traditional wild or imitation wild AR production area in China,mainly distributed in the Hengshan Mountain Range,so it is also called Hengshan AR.Among them,Hunyuan County produces better quality and quantity of astragalus,which is known as the "hometown of Astragalus".,Our group conducted a systematic evaluation of Hunyuan AR in the early stage,and the resultsshowed that Hunyuan AR has maintained the local characteristics of high-quality AR.It has been found that Guangling County is located in the Hengshan Mountain Range,west of Hunyuan County,and is also one of the main production areas of wild AR in Shanxi.However,there are few reports on the quality evaluation of Guangling AR.Does it have the similar quality characteristics of Hunyuan Astragalus? What are the differences? To this end,this study was carried out under the support of the "Guangling County Hengshan AR Cultivation Technology Promotion and the Construction of genuine medicinal materials Base" project to systematically compare and evaluate the similarities and differences between Guangling and Hunyuan AR in terms of traits,chemical and efficacy by collecting AR from different sources(different ages,shady and sunny slopes,pure wild vs.imitation wild),which is helpful to obtain comprehensive quality characteristics of AR in Guangling County.Objective:The quality differences between Guangling and Hunyuan ARs were compared comprehensively in three aspects icluding traits,chemistry and efficacy,to discover the quality characteristics of Guangling AR and to explore the quality homogeneity of Hengshan Ars.It would provide reference and basis for the quality evaluation and the development of grading standards of ARs.Methods:(1)The trait characteristics of ARs were described by observation method,and the diameter and length were determined.The content of volatile components such as nhexanal,the material basis of AR bean flavor,was determined by GC-MS technique,and the trait differences between Guangling and Hunyuan AR were comparatively evaluated.(2)The contents of astragaloside Ⅳ and calycosin-7-glucoside were determined by using the method of Chinese Pharmacopoeia,2020 edition.Twelve components including astragaloside Ⅳ and calycosin-7-glucoside were determined simultaneously according to the self-built method of our group to characterize the chemical characteristics of Guangling AR,Pearson correlation analysis was used to explore the intrinsic connection between the chemical components,the mean values of flavonoids and saponins were calculated and total flavonoids/saponins were used as evaluation indexes to compare and evaluate the chemical differences between Guangling and Hunyuan ARs,and to clarify the accumulation rules of components of Guangling AR from different sources.(3)Exhausted swimming in mice and hypoxia in Drosophila were used as experimental animal models,we used anti-fatigue,hypoxia tolerance and Drosophila longevity as evaluation indexes to compare the efficacy differences between Guangling and Hunyuan AR.In addition,metabolomics and network pharmacology were integrated to explore the mechanism of anti-fatigue effect of Hengshan AR initially.Results:(1)There was no significant difference in appearance shape,length and diameter between Guangling and Hunyuan ARs.In terms of n-hexanal content,there was no significant difference between Guangling and Hunyuan AR.Among different sources of Guangling ARs,imitation wild was higher than wild AR at the same age,and there was no difference in n-hexanal content between shady and sunny slopes.In terms of age,the n-hexanal content increased with the increase of age,and the n-hexanal content reached a significant level in five years old compared with three years old.(2)The results of two indicator components of AR: In astragaloside Ⅳ content,Hunyuan AR was significantly higher than Guangling AR.In different sources of Guangling ARs,imitation wild was higher than the wild,and the shady slope was higher than the sunny slope.The same as imitation wild AR,the content of astragaloside Ⅳgradually decreased with the increase of age.There was no significant difference between Hunyuan and Guangling ARs in terms of calycosin-7-glucoside content.For Guangling ARs from different sources,the wild was higher than the imitation wild.For the same imitation wild ARs,calycosin-7-glucoside content increased with the increase of age.Results of 12 components of AR: Pearson correlation analysis showed that between flavonoid glycosides: The correlation coefficient r value between calycosin-7-glucoside and ononin was was 0.674,and the p-value was less than 0.001,which was highly significant.The correlation coefficient r value between calycosin-7-glucoside and isoflavanside and Astrapterocarpan was 0.427 and 0.469,respectively,and the p value was less than 0.01,indicating a moderate correlation.The correlation coefficient r value between calycosin with formononetin and pterotane were 0.799 and 0.520,respectively,and the p-value was less than 0.001,which was highly significant.The correlation coefficient r value between astragaloside III and astragaloside I was 0.426,and the p value was less than 0.01.The above results suggest that there is a significant positive correlation between one class of components.In terms of total flavonoids/saponins ratio,there was no significant difference between Hunyuan and Guangling AR at the same age.Among different sources of Guangling ARs,the wild AR was significantly higher than the imitation wild AR,and the sunny slope was significantly higher than the shady slope.For the same imitation wild Ars,both the four-year-old and five-year-old ARs were significantly higher than three-year-old ARs,and the four-year-old AR was the highest.(3)In mice exhaustion swimming experiment,AR can significantly improve the mice exhaustion swimming time,elevate liver glycogen and reduce urea nitrogen level,and the difference of anti-fatigue efficacy between Guangling AR and Hunyuan AR is small.metabolomics was employed to study the mouse gastrocnemius muscle tissue,and19 differential metabolites were found to be significantly reversed after the intervention of Hengshan ARs.Combined with network pharmacology,it was finally determined that Hengshan ARs exert anti-fatigue effects mainly by regulating the GAD1 to interfere with taurine and hypotaurine metabolism.In Drosophila longevity and hypoxia experiments,it was found that AR significantly prolonged Drosophila longevity,alleviated the weakened climbing ability due to hypoxia,and reduced mortality caused by hypoxia.It was found that there was no differences between the two ARs in delaying life span and hypoxia resistance.Conclusion:There were no significant differences between Guangling and Hunyuan AR in terms of traits,chemistry and efficacy,indicating a higher quality homogeneity of Hengshan ARs.There were subtle differences between Guangling ARs from different sources.With the increase of age,the content of n-hexanal and calycosin glucoside increased,and astragaloside IV was opposite.Astragaloside Ⅳ was higher and total flavonoid/saponin ratio was lower in shady slopes than that in sunny slopes.