Abstract
The curative effects of traditional Chinese medicines are principally based
on the synergic effect of their multi-targeting, multi-ingredient
preparations, in contrast to modern pharmacology and drug development that
often focus on a single chemical entity. Therefore, the method employing a
few markers or pharmacologically active constituents to assess the quality
and authenticity of the complex preparations has a number of severe
challenges. Metabonomics can provide an effective platform for complex
sample analysis. It is also reported to be applied to the quality analysis
of the traditional Chinese medicine. Metabonomics enables comprehensive
assessment of complex traditional Chinese medicines or herbal remedies and
sample classification of diverse biological statuses, origins, or qualities
in samples, by means of chemometrics. Identification, processing, and
pharmaceutical preparation are the main procedures in the large-scale
production of Chinese medicinal preparations. Through complete scans, plants
metabonomics addresses some of the shortfalls of single analyses and
presents a considerable potential to become a sharp tool for traditional
Chinese medicine quality assessment.
Key words
plant metabonomics - large-scale production - discrimination - processing - pharmaceutics