Spectrum–effect relationship of antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities of Laportea bulbifera based on multivariate statistical analysis

Laportea bulbifera, named Hong He Ma in Chinese, is a Chinese herbal medicine commonly used by the Miao nationality of China. In this study, 43 batches of L. bulbifera were collected from different origins in China. Ethanol, ethyl acetate and petroleum ether were used to prepare different extracts of the plant. UHPLC technique was used to establish the fingerprints, whereas DPPH assay and RAW264.7 inflammatory cell models were used to evaluate the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities, respectively. Moreover, the spectrum–effect relationship between relative peak area of common peaks and efficacy value was set up by multivariate statistical analysis. Furthermore, 10 batches were selected randomly for validation of those models. The results showed that ethyl acetate and petroleum ether extracts possess excellent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities, respectively. Peaks A₆ and A₇ demonstrated the greatest antioxidant activity, while peak A₁₇ showed the strongest anti-inflammatory activity. After a verified experiment, the result was obtained and illustrated that the spectrum–effect relationship which we established could reliably infer antioxidant and anti-inflammatory compounds of the Chinese herbal medicine.