OBJECTIVE Behavior research and urinary metabolomics method were applied to evaluate the anti-aging effects of Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi extract(SBG)in D-galactose-induced rats.METHODS Fifty rats were randomly divided into five groups(n=10in each group).Group 1served as vehicle control with injection of saline(vehicle control group),and the other groups of rats received daily subcutaneously injected with D-galactose(aged model group)at dose of 100mg·kg-1 for ten weeks,respectively.At the same time,rats in groups 3-5were intragastrically administered SBG 〔extracted twice with 60%(V/V)ethanol〕at doses of 50,100 and 200mg·kg-1 for ten weeks,and the rats of groups 1 and 2 were administrated an equal volume of the vehicle.At the tenth week,the learning and memory abilities were examined by Morris water maze.The urine was collected using metabolic cages and analyzed by high-resolution 1HNMR spectroscopy combined with multivariate statistical analyses.Principal component analysis(PCA)was utilized to classify and reveal the differences between the model group and control group.Then,the concentration of these differences was analyzed with t-test to determine whether SBG was possible to influence the metabolic pattern induced by D-galactose.RESULTS Compared with the vehicle control group,the D-galactose-treated aged model group markedly spent longer time(P<0.05)in finding the platform on days 3-5 in the spatial learning acquisition training of Morris water maze test.However,the escape latency was significantly reduced(P<0.05)by long-term administration of SBG(50,100 and 200mg·kg-1)compared with the D-galactose-treated aged model group on days 3-5.In the probe test,the D-galactose-treated aged model group made fewer(P<0.05)platform crossings and distance travelled in target quadrant(P<0.05)than the vehicle control group,and the SBG at doses of 50,100 and 200mg·kg-1 treatments groups could significantly increase(P<0.05)the number of times of crossing over the platform site.The SBG at doses of100 and 200mg·kg-1 treatments groups could significantly increase(P<0.05)the distance travelled in target quadrant compared with the D-galactose-treated aged model group.In addition,the significant difference in metabolic profiling was observed from model group compared with drug-dose group by using PCA,indicating the recovery effect of SBG on D-galactose induced aging rats.Some significantly changed metabolites like glycine,glucose and hexadecanoic acid have been identified.These biochemical changes are related to the the disturbance in aimno acid metabolism,energy metabolism and glycometabolism,which are helpful to further understanding the D-galactose induced aging rats and the therapeutic mechanism of SBG.CONCLUSION These results demonstrate that SBG extract has protective effect on the D-galactose-induced aging in rats. OBJECTIVE Behavior research and urinary metabolomics method were applied to evaluate the anti-aging effects of Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi extract (SBG) in D-galactose-induced rats. METHODS Fifty rats were randomly divided into five groups (n = 10in each group) 1served as vehicle control with injection of saline (vehicle control group), and the other groups of rats received daily subcutaneously injected with D-galactose (aged model group) at dose of 100 mg · kg-1 for ten weeks, respectively. At the same time, rats in groups 3-5were intragastrically administered SBG [extracted twice with 60% (v / v) ethanol] at doses of 50, 100 and 200 mg · kg-1 for ten weeks, and the rats of groups 1 and 2 were administrated an equal volume of the vehicle. At the tenth week, the learning and memory abilities were examined by Morris water maze. The urine was collected using metabolic cages and analyzed by high-resolution 1H NMR spectroscopy combined with multivariate statistical analyzes. Principal component analysis (P CA) was utilized to classify and reveal the differences between the model group and control group. Chen, the concentration of these differences was analyzed with t-test to determine whether SBG was possible to influence the metabolic pattern induced by D-galactose. with the vehicle control group, the D-galactose-treated aged model group markedly spent longer time (P <0.05) in finding the platform on days 3-5 in the spatial learning acquisition training of Morris water maze test. However, the escape latency was significantly reduced (P <0.05) by long-term administration of SBG (50,100 and 200 mg · kg-1) compared to the D-galactose-treated aged model group on days 3-5.In the probe test, the D-galactose The tread crossings and distance traveled in the target quadrant (P <0.05) than the vehicle control group, and the SBG at doses of 50, 100 and 200 mg · kg-1 treatments groups could significantly increased (P <0.05) P <0.05) the number of times of crossing over the platf orm siteThe SBD at doses of 100 and 200 mg · kg-1 treatments groups could significantly increase (P <0.05) the distance travel in target quadrant compared with the D-galactose-treated aged model group. In addition, the significant difference in metabolic profiling was observed from model group compared with drug-dose group by using PCA, indicating the recovery effect of SBG on D-galactose induced aging rats. Significally altered metabolites like glycine, glucose and hexadecanoic acid have been identified. The biochemical changes are related to the the disturbance in aimno acid metabolism, energy metabolism and glycometabolism, which are helpful to further understand the D-galactose induced aging rats and the therapeutic mechanism of SBG. CONCLUSION These results demonstrate that SBG extract has protective effect on the D-galactose-induced aging in rats.