Comparative In Vitro Dissolution of Two Commercially Available Er-Zhi-Wan Herbal Medicinal Products

In vitro dissolution test is an essential tool to assess the quality of herbal medicinal products in the solid dosage forms for oral use. Our work aimed to evaluate the dissolution behavior of Er-Zhi-Wan, in the formulations of water-honeyed pill and formula granule. Different media (water, 30% EtOH, 0.1 M HCl, acetate buffer, pH 4.5 and phosphate buffer, pH 6.8) were used following United States Pharmacopoeia and Chinese Pharmacopeia. An ultra-high performance liquid chromatography method was developed and validated to detect simultaneously six active ingredients for quantification and dissolution study (salidroside, specnuezhenide, nuezhenoside, luteolin, apigenin, oleanolic acid). As we observed, contents of main active ingredients were close in the two formulations for daily dose. In each medium, more ingredients dissolved from formula granule with higher Ymax and Ka. The mean dissolution time of the most ingredients in granule was significantly shorter than that in pill in acetate buffer, pH 4.5 and phosphate buffer, pH 6.8. Furthermore, salidroside, specnuezhenide and luteolin dissolved more than 80% in 30 min from formula granule, which indicated higher solubility along the intestinal tract according to biopharmaceutics classification system. The dissolution test developed and validated was adequate for its purposes and could be applied for quality control of herbal medicine. This work also can be used to provide necessary information on absorption for its biopharmaceutical properties.