Objective: To establish a method suitable to determine the purgative biopotency of rhubarb and construct a new quality evaluation pattern of rhubarb.
Method: A series of factors such as observation index (mass of feces in 10 hours), animal strain (ICR mice), sex (male) and the dose of diphenoxylate complex (50 mg x kg(-1)) was investigated and fixed. The purgative biopotency as well as anthraquinone determination was used to evaluate the quality of different rhubarb samples.
Result: There wasn't a good linear relationship between the purgative biopotency and content of anthraquinone. The quality difference of rhubarb samples could be well characterized by combination of purgative biopotency determination and anthraquinone determination.
Conclusion: The purgative biopotency determination can be used in quality control and evaluation of rhubarb.