Abstract: 1H NMR spectroscopy and principal component analysis (PCA) were used to characterize the urinary metabolic profiles of rats treated with aconitine (AC). Compared to the control animals, the rats treated with AC showed increased levels of citrate, 2-oxoglutarate and cis-aconitate, and decreased levels of hippurate and phenylacetylglycine in the urine. Such metabolic changes may have reflected, respectively, the changes in body energy metabolism and in the metabolism of intestinal flora in response to AC treatment. Increase of the 2-oxoglutarate level may have also indicated the neurotoxic effects of AC. The results also showed that the changes in urinary metabolic profiles induced by AC were time- and dosage-dependent, being the most prominent between 0~8 hrs post-treatment, returning gradually towards the control level between 8~16 hrs post-treatment in the low-dose group, but not in the high-dose group. The results obtained in this study may be useful for understanding the toxicological effects of AC.

Key words: NMR, urine, principal component analysis, metabolite, aconitine