A Study on Metabolic Difference of Radix Aconiti Preparata before and after Its Combination in Rat Intestinal Microbiota Using UPLC-MS Combined with Principal Component Analysis

The ultra performance liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS) was used to investigate the metabolic difference of the decoction of Radix Aconiti Preparata (RAP) and its co-decoctions with Radix Paeoniae Alba (RAP-RPA) or Radix Stephaniae Tetrandrae (RAP-RST) in rat intestinal bacteria. The principal component analysis (PCA) of the relative contents of Aconitum alkaloids after metabolism was performed by SIMCA-P software. The score plots of PCA could successfully distinguish the three groups of RAP, RAP-RPA and RAP-RST. The result indicated that the differences of biotransformation among the groups of PAP, RAP-RPA and RAP-RST were significant. With the loading plot and independent. samples T test, seven relevant markers with the significant differences were found in the group of RAP-RPA, six relevant markers were obtained in the group of RAP-RST. The relative content of four markers in RAP-RPA was higher than that in RAP, and one marker in RAP-RST was higher than that in RAP. The relative contents of other markers were all lower than that in RAP. These markers may be the effective substance for explaining the different effects of Radix Aconiti Preparata before and after combination with Radix Paeoniae Alba and Radix Stephaniae Tetrandrae