Epimedin b

All the Chinese herbs were provided by Tongde Hospital of Zhejiang Province (Hangzhou, China). All the chemical standards, including l (+)-arginine, proline, adenine, succinic acid, isoleucine, leucine, gallic acid, phenylalanine, protocatechuic acid, l-tryptophan, protocatechuic aldehyde, neo-mangiferin, chlorogenic acid, caffeic acid, amygdalin, mangiferin, rutin, liquiritin, luteoloside, naringin, berberrubine, baicalin, quercetin, epimedin A, epimedin B, epimedin C, icarrin, isorhamnetin, glycyrrhizic acid, limonin, aaikosaponin A, and 3-N-butyl-4,4-dihydrophthalide, were purchased from Shanghai Yuanye Bio-Technology Co. Ltd (Shanghai, China). Azoxymethane (AOM) was obtained from Sigma-Aldrich (St. Louis, MO, United States) and dextran sodium sulfate (DSS) from MP Biomedicals (Santa Ana, CA United States). TUNEL apoptosis assay kits, radioimmunoprecipitation assay (RIPA) buffer, BCA protein assay kits, and anti-MMP9 antibody (AF5234) were purchased from Beyotime (Beijing, China). Mouse IL-6 and IL-17A ELISA kits were from LiankeBio (Hangzhou, China), and antibodies to p-STAT3 (AF3293), STAT3 (AF6294), NF-κB-p65 (BF8005), Bcl-2 (BF9103), Lamin B (AF5161), and β-actin (T0022) were purchased from Affinity Biosciences (Changzhou, China). Antibodies to IL-17RA (sc-376374) and Bax (sc-20067) were purchased from Santa Cruz Biotechnology (Santa Cruz, CA, United States).

Analytical standards of Epimedin A, Epimedin B, Epimedin C, Icariin, Icartin, Baohoupside Ⅰ, Sagittatoside A, Sagittatoside B, and 2′-O-rhamnosyl icariside II were from Shanghai Yuanye Bio-Technology (Shanghai, China), of a purity of >98%. Methanol, formic acid, and acetonitrile were provided by Merck KGaA (Darmstadt, Germany). Ultrapure water was used for analysis. Excellent grade pure HNO₃ and H₂SO₄ (National Pharmaceutical Group Chemical Reagent Co., Ltd., Beijing, China), BV-III grade H₂O₂ (Beijing Institute of Chemical Reagents, China Beijing), and the EM plant material were provided by Jinpai (Huangshi, China).

HPLC-grade methanol, ethanol and acetonitrile were purchased from Merck Corporation (Darmstadt, Germany). Analytical grade formic acid and acetic acid were provided by the Tianjin Reagent Company (Tianjin, China). Distilled water was purchased from Wahaha Group Co., Ltd. (Hangzhou, China). Standard compounds of nine icariin analogues including epimedin A, epimedin B, epimedin C, icariin, baohuoside I, baohuoside II, sagittatoside A, sagittatoside B, and icaritin were obtained from Shanghai Yuanye Biotechnology (Shanghai, China). All these standards were HPLC-grade and ≥98% of purity.