Abstract
Background: Hawthorn, a commonly-used traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) for treating dyspepsia，dysmenorrhea and hyperlipidemia, etc., has been proven to improve gastrointestinal motility, avoid food retention. Due to its complex ingredients, the active fractions responsible for the treatment of improving digestion remain largely unknown. To explore the underlying material and interpret its potential mechanism, the therapeutic effect of extract from different polar parts of hawthorn on gastrointestinal motility disorder was studied based on the ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) metabolomics . Materials and Methods: The rat model of gastrointestinal motility disorder was established by subcutaneous injecting with atropine. The modeled rats were then treated with 4 polar parts (T1-4 in descending polarity, corresponding to water, n-butanol, ethyl acetate and petroleum ether extracts, respectively) of hawthorn for 5 consecutive days. The stomach, small intestine, plasma samples were collected and then subjected to related measurement (gastric emptying rate and small intestine propulsion rate), UPLC-MS/MS metabolic profiling and multivariate/univariate statistical analysis. Results: The results showed that T3 had the best therapeutic effect, and T1, T2 and T4 with no obvious therapeutic effect, demonstrating that the effective components of hawthorn should be compounds of medium polarity. T3 achieved good therapeutic effects due to the gastrointestinal motility promotion activity, and by rectifying the disturbed amino acid metabolism in gastrointestinal motility disorder model. Conclusion: This integrated metabolomics approach proved the validity of the therapeutic effect of extract from different polar parts of hawthorn on gastrointestinal motility disorder, providing new insights into the underlying mechanisms, and demonstrating the feasibility of metabolomics to evaluate efficacy of herbal drug, which is often difficult by traditional means.
Metabolomics Analysis of L-Arginine Induced Gastrointestinal Motility Disorder in Rats Using UPLC-MS After Magnolol Treatment
