Bulbus of Fritillaria cirrhosa D. Don (BFC) is a kind of plateau plant which can be used both as medicine and food in China. The aim of this study is to explore the effect of ethanol extract of bulbus of F. cirrhosa (BFC-EE) on pulmonary fibrosis using a bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis model. The quality of BFC-EE was preliminarily evaluated through the contents of total alkaloids, imperialine, verticinone, verticine, imperialine-3-β-d-glucoside, delavine, peimisine, delavinone, yibeinoside A and ebeiedinone in BFC-EE were determined by UV–vis spectrophotometer and UHPLC-ESI-MS/MS. Biochemical analysis and histopathological observation confirmed the protective effect of BFC-EE on bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis in rats. In addition, western blotting analysis showed that BFC-EE inhibited the expression of α-SMA and Collagen I in lung tissues, decreased the p-NF-κB/NF-κB ratio and upregulate the expression of IκBα protein, suggesting that BFC-EE can alleviate pulmonary fibrosis in rats through inhibiting the activation of NF-κB signaling pathway.

川贝母（BFC）是我国一种既可入药又可食的高原植物。本研究的目的是利用博莱霉素诱导的肺纤维化模型探讨肝球茎乙醇提取物 (BFC-EE) 对肺纤维化的影响。BFC-EE的质量通过总生物碱、帝王素、轮叶黄酮、轮叶黄素、帝王素-3-β- d的含量进行初步评价。用紫外-可见分光光度计和UHPLC-ESI-MS/MS测定BFC-EE中的-葡糖苷、地拉芬、培米辛、地拉维酮、依贝诺苷A和依贝地酮。生化分析和组织病理学观察证实了BFC-EE对博来霉素所致大鼠肺纤维化的保护作用。此外，western blotting 分析显示，BFC-EE 抑制肺组织中 α-SMA 和胶原蛋白 I 的表达，降低 p-NF-κB/NF-κB 比值，上调 IκBα 蛋白的表达，提示 BFC-EE可通过抑制 NF-κB 信号通路的激活减轻大鼠肺纤维化。