Elizabeth J. Zhang, Bioengineering Graduate Program, Department of Chemical Engineering, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China, Kam M. Ko, Department of Biochemistry, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China, and Ka M. Ng, Department of Chemical Engineering, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China.
The objectives of this study were to explore the effective components of Sheng Mai San (SMS), a traditional Chinese herbal recipe, and to develop medicinal products based on this recipe. The effective components were characterized by HPLC analysis. The effect of different ratios between the three herbs of SMS - Radix Ginseng, Radix Ophiopogonis and Fructus Schisandrae was studied. The origin of 5-HMF, an effective component, was identified. Then MTT assay using H9c2 cells was employed to evaluate the anti-oxidant activity of SMS decoctions. Moreover, both ethanol precipitation and chitosan precipitation were used to purify the effective components to develop high quality medicinal products. The two methods were primarily identified to be effective for conserving most of the effective components and the anti-oxidant activity of SMS, with ethanol precipitation being more efficient and the chitosan method being lower cost.