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-α, NO, and H₂O₂ production in a dose-dependent manner. IC₅₀ values were 3.3, 4.1, and 3.6 μg 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.