eng Science and Education Publishing Journal of Food and Nutrition Research 2333-1240 2025 *These authors contributed equally to this study and should be considered co-corresponding authors-05-21 13 5 215 225 10.12691/jfnr-13-5-3 JFNR20251353 article Guanqun Wang 1 2 Ju-Hwa Baek 3 Ji Myung Choi 4 Hyun Seok Choi 4 Ki Tae Ha 5 Min Jung Park bosunjoo@hanmail.net, ohnsa@naver.com 5 6 Bo Sun Joo bosunjoo@hanmail.net, ohnsa@naver.com 6 6 College of Wealth Management, Ningbo University of Finance and Economics, Ningbo, China Department of R&D Center, the Korea Institute for Public Sperm Bank, Busan, Rep. of Korea Lab-to-Medi CRO Inc., Seoul, Rep. of Korea Department of Korean Medical Science, School of Korean Medicine and Korean Medicine Research Center for Healthy Aging, Pusan National University, Yangsan, Rep. of Korea Paeonia lactiflora Pall (PL) with Astragalus membranaceus (AM) are herbs widely used in traditional herbal medicine formulations to alleviate female menopausal symptoms. However, there are no reports on the anti-menopausal effects of a mixture of PL and AM. This study aimed to investigate whether a combination of PL with AM exerts a synergistic effect in alleviating menopausal symptoms. The mixture of PL and AM (PLAM) was combined in a ratio of 1:4, and the effect was investigated at dose of 30 and 60 mg/kg body weight (BW) in ovariectomized (OVX) mice. Six OVX groups were administered orally once a day with distilled water (10 mL/kg), estradiol valerate (0.5 mg/ kg), PL (23.5 mg/kg), AM (77 mg/kg), PLAM (30 mg/kg and 60 mg/kg) for 8 weeks, respectively. One group served as a sham-operated control. PLAM significantly decreased the body weight, uterine atrophy, and aortic intima-media thickness, while increased uterine weight, estradiol production and bone formation compared to individual extracts of PL and AM. These effects were more pronounced at a high-dose of PLAM (60 mg/kg) than a low-dose (30 mg/kg). The results demonstrate that a high-dose of PLAM mixtures exerts the best synergistic effect for alleviating menopausal symptoms in mice, suggesting that PLAM can be applied as an effective new agent for treating menopausal symptoms. https://pubs.sciepub.com/jfnr/13/5/3/jfnr-13-5-3.pdf Menopause Symptoms Paeonia lactiflora Pall Astragalus membranaceus Synergistic effect