Research on the Orientated Effective Components of Huangqi in Huangqi Jianzhong Tang Against Chronic Atrophic Gastritis Based on Multi-Spectrum–Effect Correlation

This study aimed to investigate the orientated effective components of Astragali Radix Huangqi (HQ) in HQ Jianzhong Tang (HQJZ), a classical formula of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) used for treating chronic atrophic gastritis (CAG), using HQ as a monarch medicine. The spectra of HQJZ containing different polar parts of HQ were obtained using ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-Q-Exactive mass spectrometry. Furthermore, the efficacy of HQJZ, which contains different polar parts of HQ, in treating rats with CAG was evaluated using traditional pharmacodynamic and nuclear magnetic resonance-based metabonomics. Grey relation analysis and partial least squares analysis were applied to analyze the spectrum–effect relationship and to screen out the orientated effective components related to HQ in the treatment of CAG. Spectrum–effect relationship analysis showed that 24 compounds identified from the fingerprint spectrum were strongly correlated with efficacy. Compounds 8 (calycosin-7-O-glc-6”- O-acetate), 9 (3-hydroxy-9, 10-dimethoxyptercarpan), and 22 (astragaloside II) were ranked among the top three. This study showed that integrating metabolomics and spectrum–effect relationship analysis is a powerful tool for obtaining orientated effective components of Chinese medicine in a given TCM formula.