The study was designed to explore the potential applications of the real-time cell electronic analysis technology in the quality evaluation of natural medicines. The natural medicinal Flos Carthami was discussed as a methodological example and the specific time/dose-dependent cell response profiles （TCRPs） were produced by the real-time cell electronic analysis technology. The similarity and bioactivity were obtained by analyzing all TCRPs. Meanwhile, an HPLC method according to the Chinese Pharmacopeia （edition 2010） was used to evaluate the quality of Flos Carthami. The correlation was obtained by comparing the results produced by the two different approaches. By analyzing the data, five different samples ofFlos Carthami can produce remarkably similar TCRPs. The quality ofFlos Carthami was evaluated by both the HPLC and the TCRPs analysis-based approaches and similar results were obtained. The results suggest that the same natural medicine from different locations could produce similar TCRPs. By analyzing the TCRPs, the bioactivity and quality evaluation of natural medicines can be obtained. This technology is a physiologically relevant approach for the quality evaluation of natural medicines. The ultimate aim of our study is to establish a new standard for quality evaluation.
Guo-Jun YanXin MeiJin YangJenny ZhuJie-Ying WuJin-Huo Pan
