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Abstract: Ethnopharmacological relevance: The crude secondary roots of Aconitum carmichaelii Debeaux (Fuzi), together with its processed products, including Yanfuzi, Heishunpian and Paofupian, are commonly applied in clinic using for thousands of years, such as collapse, syncope, rheumatic fever, painful joints and various tumors. Aim of the study: To explore the different effects of Fuzi and its processed products on energy metabolism, with mitochondria as the model with the aim of guiding the clinical use of Fuzi and its products. fingerprints of Fuzi, Yanfuzi, Heishunpian and Paofupian were established by Ultra-high Performance Liquid Chromatography (UPLC) and effects of Fuzi and its processed products on rat’s liver׳s mitochondrial metabolism were studied by microcalorimetry. Spectrum-effect relationships between UPLC fingerprints and energy metabolism of mitochondria were investigated using canonical correlation analysis (CCA). Results: Because of their inherent differences in chemical compositions, the main activities of energy metabolism of mitochondria were different among Fuzi and its processed products. The potential bioactivity sequence of the tested products was Fuzi>Heishunpian>Paofupian>Yanfuzi. Results of CCA showed that compounds mesaconitine, benzoylaconitine, and benzoylhypacoitine might be the principal active components. Conclusion: Altogether, this work provides a general model of combination of UPLC and microcalorimetry to study the spectrum-effect relationships of Fuzi and its processed products which can offer some references for detecting principal components of traditional Chinese medicine on bioactivity to mitochondrial growth. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Highlights: [•] This article investigated the effects of crude Radix Aconiti Lateralis and its processed products on splenic lymphocytes. [•] The results showed that bioeffects of crude Radix Aconiti Lateralis could be obtained by thermodynamic parameters. [•] This study gave the hint that the microcalorimetry is a useful tool to estimate the efficiency and toxicity of medicine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The power–time curves of Escherichia coli growth at 37°C affected by different concentrations of ephedrine were recorded by microcalorimetry. By analyzing some quantitative parameters from these curves using correspondence analysis, the effect of ephedrine on E. coli could be easily evaluated by analyzing the two main parameters, growth rate constant k 2 and maximum heat-output power P 2 of the second peak in the power–time curves. The results showed that the strong antibacterial effect of ephedrine on E. coli was concentration-depended: ephedrine at low concentration had poor inhibitory effect, and at high concentration notably inhibited the growth of E. coli. 376.8μg/ml of ephedrine could cause 50% inhibition on E. coli. Ephedrine presented strong antibacterial effect on E. coli, which might be used as a potential novel antibacterial agent in practice. Microcalorimetric investigation of the effect of antibacterial agent on bacterial pathogens was promising in comparison to other methods. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]