SIMULTANEOUS DETERMINATION AND ANTI-INFLAMMATORY EFFECTS OF TRADITIONAL HERBAL MEDICINE, MAHWANG-TANG

Background: Mahwang-tang (MT) is a traditional Korean medicine consisting of six medicinal herbs and is used to treat the influenza-like diseases. Materials and
Materials and Methods: We performed the simultaneous analysis of nine bioactive components in an MT sample using a high-performance liquid chromatography–diode array detector (HPLC–DAD) analysis. In addition, the MT sample was investigated the inhibitory effects against lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated RAW 264.7 cells.
Results: Recovery of the nine marker compounds was 98.24–102.05% and relative standard deviations of intra-day and inter-day precisions of this method were 0.05–1.92% and 0.02–1.64%, respectively. Amounts of the nine bioactive compounds in the MT samples were 0.24–24.86 mg/g. To determine the biological activity of MT, its effects on the inflammatory reaction in LPS-treated RAW 264.7 macrophages were tested. The results suggest that MT possesses anti-inflammatory activity via suppression of the nitric oxide/prostaglandin E₂ pathway.
Conclusion: The established analytical method by HPLC–DAD is expected to help the quality control of MT samples or related herbal prescriptions. Our data also suggest that MT may be a potential therapeutic candidate for various inflammatory diseases.

Keywords
Simultaneous determination; anti-Inflammatory effect; traditional herbal medicine; Mahwang-tang, HPLC–PDA