Animal procedures

Male Sprague-Dawley rats (250 ± 20 g) were obtained from the Laboratory Animal Research Center, Nanjing University (Nanjing, China). Rats were housed in an air-conditioned room at constant room temperature (25 ± 2 °C) and air humidity (50 ± 10 %), with a 12-hour light and dark cycle, with free access to water and rodent chow (5 rats per cage). All procedures were approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) of China Pharmaceutical University.

Rats were randomly divided into nine groups (n ≥ 20): sham operation (N), MCAO model (M), and treatment with berberine (A), baicalin (B), andjasminoidin (C), or their combinations (AB, AC, BC, and ABC; Supplementary Table S1). The optimized dosage of 20 mg/kg body weight (BW) was used, according to the results of preliminary experiments (data not shown). Drugs were combined according to their ratios in the HLJDD formula: berberine 5.05%, baicalin 4.02% and jasminoidin 2.70% (Figure ​(Figure1A)1A) [51]. Drugs were dissolved in 0.5% carboxymethyl cellulose sodium salt (CMC-Na) and intragastrically (i.g.) administered to rats (20 mg/kg BW) once a day for 7 days, while the sham and MCAO groups were administered equivalent amounts of 0.5% CMC-Na for 1 week.