Comparison of Two Different Astragali Radix by 1H NMR based Metabolomic Approach

Astragali Radix (AR) is a commonly used herbal drug in Traditional Chinese Medicine, and widely used for the treatment of diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, nephropathy and neuropathy. The main source of AR is the dried root of Astragalus membranaceus var. mongholicus (Bge.) Hsiao in China, and both cultivated and wild ARs are used in the clinic. Systematic comparison of cultivated AR and wild AR should be performed to ensure the efficacy and safety in clinic. In this study, the chemical compositions of two different ARs, collected in Shanxi (wild) and Gansu (cultivated) Provinces, were compared by NMR based metabolic fingerprint coupled with multivariate analysis. Then SX-AR and GS-AR induced metabolic changes of endogenous metabolites in mice were also compared. The results showed that SX-AR and GS-AR differed significantly not only in the primary metabolites, but also the secondary metabolites. However, alterations of endogenous metabolites in serum, lung, liver and spleen were relatively small between them. This study provided a novel and valuable method for consistency and diversity evaluation of herbal drugs, and further studies should be conducted on the difference of polysaccharide as well as biological effect between the two kinds of ARs.