Sixty-four male Sprague–Dawley rats weighing 180–220 g were provided by the specific-pathogen free animal center of Dalian Medical University and kept in a clean animal laboratory with ad libitum access to food and water. All animal protocols were approved by the Committee on the Ethics of Animal Experiments of Dalian Medical University (No. AEE19001). Qingyi granules were provided by the Pharmaceutical Department of the First Affiliated Hospital of Dalian Medical University. The herbs in Qingyi granules include Bupleurum chinense, Gardenia jasminoides, Scutellaria baicalensis, Paeonia lactiflora, Corydalis yanhusuo, Saussurea costus, Rheum officinale, and Natrii Sulfas. Each of the voucher specimens was kept in the Clinical Laboratory of Integrative Medicine at the First Affiliated Hospital of Dalian Medical University. The formula preparation, chemical profiling and quality control have been reported by our team previously (Wei et al. 2021 (link)). Emodin (C15H10O5, MW: 270.24, CAS: 518-82-1), an anthraquinone derivative that is also named 2-methyl-4,5,7-trihydroxyanthraquinone and has a light yellow to orange appearance, was obtained from Solarbio Life Sciences Co. (IE0070), China.