INFLUENCES OF COLD CHINESE HERBAL MEDICINE WITH STOMACH-MERIDIAN TROPISM ON GENERAL SYMPTOM OF RATS WITH STOMACH-HEAT SYNDROME

Rats were fed with decoction of Rhizoma zingiberis for 15 continuous days to induce the model of stomach-heat syndrome. After modeling, the decoctions of Rhizoma Coptidis(RC), Herba Taraxaci(HT) and Fructus Aurantii Immaturus(FAI) were given respectively to corresponding groups for 10 days. After treatment, amount of the daily food and water, volume and absorbance of urine, pellet number and moistness of excrement, color and coating degree of tongue were recorded, the contents of interleukin-4(IL-4) and interleukin-8(IL-8) in serum were measured by radioimmunoassay. The results shown: the model rats had yellow coating and red tongues (P0.05), amount of daily food and water were increased (over 10%), urine volume and excrement pellet number were decreased (over 10%), their urine color became deep (P0.01) and their excrement became dry, the content of IL-8 increased noticeably ( P0.01). RC, HT and FAI could improve the indexes observed above, and the colder the nature the better the effects. It can be concluded that the reason why RC, HT and FAI relieve the general symptom of rats with stomach-heat syndrome is that they can decrease the content of IL-8 in serum.