Changes in the Effective Compounds and the Anti-inflammatory Activity before and after the Decoction of Ephedra and Liquorite

The major chemical constituents of glycyrrhiza(glycyrrhizic acid,liquiritin)and ephedra(ephedrine and methephedrine)in the decoction of ephedra-glycyrrhiza were analyzed by high performance liquid chromatography(HPLC)and gas chromatography(GC),respectively.The influences of different parts of ephedra-glycyrrhiza on the auricular swelling of mice caused by dimethylbenzene were studied.This method can sensitively detect the difference between the single decoction of glycyrrhiza,ephedra and combined decoction of ephedra-glycyrrhiza.Compared to that of single decoction,the abundances of glycyrrhizic acid,liquiritin,ephedrine and methephedrine in the combined decoction of ephedra-glycyrrhiza were increased by 13.50%,-19.38%,14.52% and 64.0%,respectively.The anti-inflammatory ability of the combined decoction of ephedra-glycyrrhiza was higher than that of the single decoctions.