Abstract: Objective To investigate the effect of a kind of Strong-bone Capsule on increasing bone mineral density (BMD) in castrated female rats, and explore its mechanisms. Methods Castrated female rats were treated with three different doses of the capsule (0.17, 0.33 and 1.00 g/kg) for three months, then the weight of rats, weight of the femur, the bone calcium content and BMD were examined; meanwhile, the calcium absorption experiment was also carried out on weanling rats with the same doses of each capsule, where the weight, body length, feces calcium content, ingestion content of the rats were measured and the uptake rate of calcium was calculated. Results The distal end and mid-point of the femur BMD in the moderate and high dose groups were significantly higher than that of the model control group; there were no significant differences of feces calcium content, ingestion content and uptake rate of calcium between the strong-bone capsule groups and calcium carbonate control group(P>0.05). Conclusion The capsule could increase the BMD of castrated rats by supplying calcium and regulating bone metabolism.

Key words: Strong-bone capsule, Bone mineral density, Castrated rat model