Abstract: Objective The influence of different alcohol extraction on the content of total alkaloid, total organic acid and acute toxicity of Rhizoma Pinelliae caused by different extracted crafts was compared, in order to provide a basis for safe and reasonable medication in clinic. Methods Using different alcohol extracted crafts to prepare the samples. UV method was used to determine the content of total alkaloid at 416nm wavelength, and the content of total organic acid in different samples were determined by acid-base titration. The classical acute toxicity methods were used in this study. The MTD value of 75% alcohol-group, 75% alcohol-extracted group, MLD value of 30% alcohol-filtered group, 30% alcohol-extracted group were tested by mg/kg basis. Administration and observation the mice for 14 days, and the change of mice weight, the acute toxical symptoms, signs, death time and accumulated death rate were recorded. Results The content of total alkaloid is: 75% alcohol-filtered group>75% alcohol-extracted group>30% alcohol-filtered group>30% alcohol-extracted group; the content of total organic acid is: 75% alcohol-filtered group>75% alcohol-extracted group>30% alcohol-extracted group>30% alcohol-filtered group.The MTD value of 75% alcohol-filtered group and 75% alcohol-extracted group is 94.4 g·kg-1·d-1 and 99.2 g·kg-1·d-1 respectively, which are equal to 734.2 and 771.6 times of daily dosage in clinic;the MLD value of 30% alcohol-filtered group and 30% alcohol-extracted group is 295.2 g·kg-1·d-1 and 291.6g·kg-1·d-1 respectively, which are equal to 2 296.0 and 2 268.0 times of daily dosage in clinic. Conclusion Extracting temperature and alcohol concentration have great influence on the content of toxical substances of Rhizoma Pinelliae, total alkaloid and total organic acid are mostly in high-concentration alcohol extractions. The temperature mainly impact the content of total alkaloid, while has small impact on the content of total organic acid. The results also shows that the acute toxity of different alcohol extracted samples have some relevance with the content of total organic acid and total alkaloid.

Key words: Rhizoma Pinelliae, alcohol extracted craft, total alkaloid, total organic acid, acute toxicity