Clinical Trials Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2017. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Apr 28, 2017; 23(16): 2987-2994
Published online Apr 28, 2017. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v23.i16.2987
Effects of Chinese herbal medicine Xiangbin prescription on gastrointestinal motility
Zhi Jiang, Li-Xing Cao, Bo Liu, Qi-Cheng Chen, Wen-Fan Shang, Lu Zhou, Dan-Yan Li, De-An Guo, Zhi-Qiang Chen
Zhi Jiang, Li-Xing Cao, Bo Liu, Qi-Cheng Chen, Wen-Fan Shang, Dan-Yan Li, Zhi-Qiang Chen, Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou 510120, Guangdong Province, China
Lu Zhou, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing 100005, China
De-An Guo, Shanghai Research Center for Modernization of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201203, China
Author contributions: Jiang Z, Cao LX and Liu B contributed equally to the work and should be regarded as co-first authors; Jiang Z, Cao LX, Chen QC and Shang WF performed the research; Zhou L verified the design; Guo DA and Chen ZQ designed the research and should be regarded as co-corresponding authors; Jiang Z wrote the paper; Shang WF and Li DY collected and analyzed the data.
Supported by Guangdong Provincial Department of Science and Technology, No. [2013]173.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Ethical Committee of the Second Affiliated Hospital, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine.
Clinical trial registration statement: This study was registered in the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry, and the registration number is ChiCTR-OCS-13003561.
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided signed informed consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors declare no conflict of interest.
Data sharing statement: We share the statistical results at http://www.chictr.org.cn/searchproj.aspx.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Dr. Zhi-Qiang Chen, Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou 510120, Guangdong Province, China. zhi57@163.com
Telephone: +86-20-81887233 Fax: +86-20-81867705
Received: January 11, 2017
Peer-review started: January 12, 2017
First decision: February 23, 2017
Revised: March 11, 2017
Accepted: March 20, 2017
Article in press: March 20, 2017
Published online: April 28, 2017
Abstract
AIM

To investigate the effects of Xiangbin prescription (XBP), a Chinese herbal concoction, on gastrointestinal motility.

METHODS

Forty healthy volunteers were recruited for this randomized controlled trial of XBP. Antroduodenojejunal manometry was used to monitor gastrointestinal motility in these subjects. After the subjects had fasted for at least 12 h, XBP (n = 30) or placebo (n = 10) was orally administrated and gastrointestinal motility was recorded for 4 h. Plasma motilin and ghrelin were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.

RESULTS

Oral administration of XBP significantly increased the amplitude of duodenal contractions [19.5 (13.0-26.7) vs 16.9 (12.3-23.9), P < 0.05], jejunal contractions [18.3 (15.3-25.0) vs 15.4 (11.7-23.9), P < 0.01], and the motility index of duodenal contractions [522.0 (146.0-139.0) vs 281.0 (76.5-1006.0), P < 0.01] in phase II of the migratory motor complex (MMC), which subsequently initiated the MMC cycle [74.0 (30.0-118.0) vs 116.5 (24.0-219.0), P < 0.05], shortened the duration of phase I of the MMC [42.0 (0.0-90.0) vs 111.5 (42.0-171.0), P < 0.01], and lengthened the duration of phase II of the MMC [120 (21-240) vs 58 (16-170), P < 0.01] compared to the duration before XBP administration. There were significant differences in the amplitude of jejunal contractions [19.8 (14.0-30.0) vs 18.0 (13.0-28.5), P < 0.05], the motility index of duodenal contractions [236.0 (115.0-306.0) vs 195.0 (109.0-310.0), P < 0.05)], and jejunal contractions [214.0 (95.0-403.0) vs 178.0 (55.0-304.0), P < 0.01] in phase III of the MMC. Oral administration of XBP greatly increased plasma motilin (57.69 ± 9.03 vs 49.38 ± 8.63, P < 0.01) and ghrelin (279.20 ± 104.31 vs 238.73 ± 115.59, P < 0.01) concentrations compared to concentrations after oral administration of the placebo.

CONCLUSION

XBP can stimulate duodenal and jejunal motility and increase the concentrations of plasma motilin and ghrelin. The clinical applicability of XBP in treating GDIM deserves investigation.

Keywords: Antrotroduodenojejunal manometry, Gastrointestinal motility, Migrating motor complex, Xiangbin concoction, Motilin, Ghrelin

Core tip: Disorders of gastrointestinal motility are heavy medical burdens to patients and the society, and development of effective and safe drug treatments for these disorders has proven challenging. Xiangbin prescription is an effective prokinetic Chinese herbal concoction. The core of this randomized, double-blind study is to investigate the effects of Xiangbin prescription on gastrointestinal motility in 40 healthy volunteers.