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The inhibitory effect of three berberine alkaloids (BAs) from Coptis chinensis Franch, a traditional Chinese medicinal (TCM) herb, on Bifldobacterium adolescentis growth was investigated by microcalorimetry. The power-time curves of B. adolescentis with and without BAs were acquired, meanwhile the extent and duration of inhibitory effect on the metabolism were evaluated by the growth rate constant (k), half inhibitory ratio (IC[sub50]), maximum heat-output power (Pmax), peak time of maximum heat-output power (t[subp]) and total heat production (Q[subt]). k, P[subma]x and Q[subt] decreased, and t[subp] was prolonged with the increase of BAs concentration. The IC[sub50] of BAs is 806 μg/mL for berberine, 341 μg/mL for coptisine and 236 μg/mL for palmatine. The sequence of antimicrobial activity of BAs is berberine < coptisine < palmatine. Combined with previous studies, it could be shown that the sequences of antimicrobial activity of BAs on both Bacillus shigae and Escherichla coil are berberine > coptisine > palmatine. The structure-function relationship of BAs indicates that the functional group methylenedioxy or methoxyl at C2 and C3 might be the major group inducing the activities of BAs on E. coil and B. adolescentis. Meanwhile, the substituent groups at C2, C3, C9 and C10 almost have equal effect on B. shigae. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most of herbal medicines of different sources are used for the same treatment goal in clinic despite their tremendous differences of the quality. Because the clinical efficacy is closely related to the quality of medicines, the implementation of an effective quality control (QC) process is vital. Chemical methods based on content determination and chromatographic fingerprints (CFs) have been recommended as powerful tools. In spite of advances in QC, it is still difficult to determine that which of the chemical compositions can best reflect the correlation with the desired biological activity. Herein, we have focused on the biological activities of multi-source herbal medicines to establish an analytical method. By looking for correlations between the biological activities and their chemical compositions, the method can identify reasonable chemical indicators or chemical methods with biological activity information. In this study, high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and microcalorimetry are combined as a useful method for evaluating the quality of Rhizoma coptidis from different sources. The results of biological fingerprints (BFs) showed that the antibacterial activity sequence of R. coptidis of different sources was Coptis teeta Wall. ( CT)> Coptis chinensis Franch. ( CC)> Coptis deltoidea C.Y. Cheng et Hsiao ( CD). The “spectrum-activity” relationships between CFs and BFs were investigated using the canonical correlation analysis (CCA). Compared with the CCA result of CFs and BFs, the canonical correlation coefficient r1 and r2 were 0.9974 and 0.9752, respectively. It revealed that there are a close correlation between the spectrum-activity relationships and several of the major anti-bacterial components in the CFs, including jatrorrhizine, coptisine, palmatine, and berberine. Of course, R. coptidis was only a representative of multi-source medical plants. The result of the current study will provide an effective reference for evaluating the quality of multi-source herbal medicines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The action of Cornu Cervi Pantotrichum (CCP), Cornu Cervi (CC) and Cornu Saigae Tataricae (CST) on Escherichia coli growth were investigated using microcalorimetry to find the heat change regularity of microbial growth. The similarity of thermogenic curves and thermodynamics parameters were investigated as evaluation index, such as the growth rate constant in the first exponential phase (k1), maximum power in the first exponential phase (P1), maximum power in the secondary exponential phase (P2), peak time in the first exponential phase (T1), peak time in the stationary phase (T2) and the total heat production in stage 1 (Q1), and the total heat production in stage 2 (Q2). Chemometric analysis was used as a reference for the bioactivity evaluation of medicinal animal horns. The results indicated that the similarity between CST and the control was smaller than that between CCP, CC and the control. Both CCP and CC could increase the heat in the microbial growth, whereas CST decreased it. The biotic thermal activity of different medicinal animal horns was objectively, qualitatively, and quantitatively evaluated by the similarity of thermogenic curves and thermodynamics parameters analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The toxic effect of different solubilizing excipients on the growth and metabolism of Tetrahymena thermophila BF5 (T.t.BF5) at various concentrations was investigated by microcalorimetry. The thermogenic curves of T.t.BF5 growth were determined at 28°C, and were evaluated by dynamic parameters. The results indicated that the values of growth rate constant (k), maximum power (P1, P2), peak time (T1, T2) and total quantity of heat (Q) varied for different excipients. There was a good linear relationship between k and concentrations (r>0.95, P<0.01). 5% inhibition concentration (IC5) of poloxamer 188, Tween 80, PEG 600, PEG 400 and Tween 20 was 2.18, 1.07, 1.35, 0.58, and 0.045 mg/mL, respectively. After the principal component analysis (PCA), Q, k and P1 could characterize the effect of these excipients on T.t.BF5 growth. Comprehensive evaluation indicated that compared with the control group, poloxamer 188 had the weakest toxicity and Tween 20 had the strongest toxicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]