Objective: To explore the material basis of couplet medicines of Ephedrae Herba and Armeniacae Semen Amarum in reducing airway damage in rats

and to explore its mechanism of action. Method: Male Sprague-Dawley(SD) rats were adaptively reared for 3 days.After screening

they were randomly divided into 9 groups[normal group

model group

dexamethasone group

and Ephedrae Herba-Armeniacae Semen Amarum with different ratio groups(N1-N6 groups)].At 9:00 am

the corresponding drugs were intragastrically administered.Immediately after 1 hour of intragastric administration

2% acetylcholine chloride+0.4% histamine phosphate was used to induce asthma and the incubation period was recorded for 7 days.Immediately after the last asthmatic anesthesia

the main trachea was taken out

some of the trachea were fixed with 10% formaldehyde

and hematoxylin-eosin(HE) staining was used to observe the pathological features of each group.Another part of the tracheal homogenate was treated by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for the concentration of epidermal growth factor(EGF)

inducible nitric oxide synthase(iNOS) and endothelin-1(ET-1).After the adaptive feeding of 6 rats in the same batch

the jejunum and ileum intestine were separated to prepare the drug-containing intestinal absorption liquid.Ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole-time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry(UPLC-Q-TOF-MS/MS) was used to analyze the major differential components and their content in the drug-containing intestinal absorption liquid of Ephedrae Herba-Armeniacae Semen Amarum.Multiple linear regression analysis was used to analyze the correlation between the effect indicators and the main differential components. Result: The differential components in the intestinal absorption liquid of N1-N6 groups were ephedrine

pseudoephedrine

methylephedrine and amygdalin;the effect indicators were asthmatic latency

ET-1

iNOS

EGF mass concentrations and total score of airway pathology. Conclusion: The main material basis of Ephedrae Herba-Armeniacae Semen Amarum for prolonging the incubation period and repairing airway damage are ephedrine

pseudoephedrine

methylephedrine and amygdalin.The main active ingredient that reduces iNOS and ET-1 levels

inhibits EGF production

and maintains lower levels of NO/ET is methylephedrine.It indicates that Ephedrae Herba was the main medicinal taste

and Armeniacae Semen Amarum assists repairing airway damage.The N3 group has the best therapeutic effect.