中药质量控制是制约中药现代化发展的关键因素,也一直是中医药界和社会关注的热点问题。而化学成分检测是目前绝大多数中药质量控制的主要手段,但很多成分既缺乏专属性,也没有生物活性,这势必大大降低了中药质量标准的实际价值,而且也很难真实反映中药的质量。中药质量标志物(Q-Marker)是在现有科学技术条件下提出的新概念,对中药质量控制提出了新的要求。基于中药Q-Marker的研究模式,从药效物质基础研究、化学成分专属性研究、化学结构和生物活性研究、可测性研究、指纹图谱研究5个方面,介绍益母草和赶黄草Q-Marker的研究过程。

Quality control of Chinese materia medica (CMM), a key factor in restricting the development of modernization of CMM, has always been a hot issue to traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) circles, our society, and the public. At present, determination of chemical components is the main means for quality control of vast majority of CMM, but many components lack not only specificity, but also biological activities. This is bound to greatly reduce the value of quality standard of CMM, which makes it difficult to reflect the true quality of CMM. Quality marker (Q-Marker) of CMM is a new concept that brings forward higher requirement to quality control of CMM. Based on the basic conditions of Q-Marker, Leonurus japonicus and Penthorum chinense have been investigated systematically. This paper introduces theIR research processes from five aspects: effective material basis, specificity of the isolated components, chemical structure and bioactivity, measurability, and fingerprint spectrum.

国家自然科学基金资助项目(81303209);中国博士后科学基金资助项目(2014M562291);四川省科技支撑计划(2014SZ0134)