Metabolomic profiling reveals hypoglycemic effect of Jinqi Jiangtang tablet on type 2 diabetic rats

Background: Si-Miao Sun wrote about the Jinqi Jiangtang tablet (JQJT) that is derived from the traditional Chinese herbal medicine Huanglien (apiis Chinensis Franch) pills in the Essential Recipes for Emergent Use Worth A Thousand Gold in C.F. 652. The tablet is used to treat diabetes in China owing to its powerful hypoglycemic properties. However, little is known about the metabolic mechanisms underlying these properties. Methods: Ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole-time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry-based metabolomics approach was performed to explore the metabolic mechanism of JQJT in the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Results: The metabolomic pathway analysis and the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes database were used to screen out 25 potential biomarkers and construct pertinent metabolic pathways. Five metabolites, such as allantoic acid and taurine, were downregulated and 20 metabolites were upregulated in the urine of T2DM rats. The biomarkers in the JQJT group exhibited a good callback trend. It is speculated that JQJT can alleviate T2DM by regulating the disorders of taurine, hypotaurine, phenylalanine, ascorbate, and aldarate metabolism, as well as pentose and glucuronate interconversions. Conclusion: This study will be meaningful in the clinical application of JQJT and will be valuable for further exploration of the metabolic mechanisms underlying its properties.