Artesunate was well known as an antimalarial drug. Our previous research found that it has hypolipidemia effects in rabbits fed with a high-fat diet, especially combined with ursolic acid. In this study, we reconfirmed the lipid-lowering effect of artesunate and ursolic acid in hamsters and analyzed the metabolic changes using gas chromatography time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC/TOF MS). Compared with the model group, a variety of different metabolites of artesunate and ursolic acid, alone or in combination, were found and confirmed. These differential metabolites, including fatty acids, lipids, and amino acids, were involved in lipid metabolism, energy metabolism, and amino acid metabolism. It indicated that two agents of artesunate and ursolic acid could attenuate or normalize the metabolic transformation on these metabolic pathways.
Keywords: Artesunate; hyperlipidemia; metabolomics; ursolic acid.