OBJECTIVEBased on the therapeutic claims of Angong Niuhuang pill, a series of pharmacodynamic experiments were designed, where pharmacological effects were investigated comparatively with its simplified prescription(realgar and cinnabar are removed from the original pill) as a parallel control in order to explore possible contribution of cinnabar and realgar to pharmacodynamic activities of the pill as a whole.

METHODAnti-pyretic, sedative, anti-convulsive, and mice-protected effects of the pill and its simplified prescription as a control were observed, respectively, in rabbits with fever induced by typhoid bacillus, in pentobarbital sodium-induced sleeping mice, in mice with convulsion induced by strychnine, or pentylenetetrazole, and in mice with anoxia induced by NaNO2.

RESULTBoth the pill and its simplified prescription were found to have Anti-pyretic action and protective effect against the mouse death induced by anoxia, and synergistic interaction with pentobarbital sodium in sedative activity, although neither of them was found to have any effects on the convulsion of mice.

CONCLUSIONNo significant difference between Angong Niuhuang pill and its simplified prescription was found in the above pharmacodynamic experiments.