Role of astragalus mongholicus and salvia miltiorrhiza for supplementing Qi and activating blood circulation in prevention and treatment of rat acute lung injury

Objective To study the role of Chinese herbal medicines（astragalus mongholicus and salvia miltiorrhiza）for supplementing Qi and activating blood circulation in prevention and treatment of acute lung injury（ALI）. Methods Forty-eight male Sprague Dawley rats were randomly divided into normal control group,model control group,and Chinese herbal medicine group（16 in group）.Animals in model control group and normal control group received intra-gastric 2ml normal saline（NS） daily for a week,those in herbal medicine group received intra-gastric 2ml herbal medicine liquid（0.25g/ml） daily for 1 week.ALI models were established by intra-tracheal lipopolysacchride（LPS） drip for model control group and Chinese herbal medicine group,and by intra-tracheal NS drip for normal control group.Lung index（LI）,lung permeation index（LPI）,and index of quantitative assessment（IQA） were monitored,and morphological changes in the lungs were observed. Results The LI（4.24±0.37）,LPI（0.88%±0.20%）,and IQA（17.7%±6.1%） were significantly lower while the PaO2（98.83±2.74mmHg） and SaO2（96.76 %±1.19%） were significantly higher in Chinese herbal medicine group than those in model control group（P＜0.01）.However,no significant difference was observed in the lung structure between Chinese herbal medicine group and normal control group（P＞0.05）. Conclusion Astragalus mongholicus and salvia miltiorrhiza play a significant role in prevention and treatment of ALI.