A Combined Peritoneal Macrophage/Cell Membrane Chromatography and Offline GC-MS Method for Screening Anti-Inflammatory Components from Chinese Traditional Medicine Houttuynia cordata Thunb.

The aim of this study was to screen for the anti-inflammatory components from Houttuynia cordata Thunb (HCT) using an analytical method combining cell membrane chromatography (CMC) with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The stationary phase of the CMC employed mouse peritoneal macrophage (PM) cell membranes. We investigated the performance of the PM/CMC-offline-GC-MS method using hydrocortisone (HC) as standard. The method was then applied to the identification of anti-inflammatory components in extracts of HCT. The major component retained by CMC was identified as methyl nonyl ketone (MNK) by GC-MS. In vitro experiments revealed that MNK was able to inhibit LPS-induction of TNF-alpha, NO, and H2O2 production in a dose-dependent manner. IC50 values were 3.3, 4.1, and 3.6 mu g mL(-1), respectively. The PM/CMC-offline-GC-MS method is an effective screening system for the rapid detection, enrichment, and identification of target components from complex samples.