α-淀粉和甘草甜素在半夏传统炮制中对刺激性针晶的变性作用

目的:生半夏,植物半夏的干燥块茎,当以生的形式吞食时,会对口腔和喉咙造成严重的辛辣刺激。根据中医理论,通过加热或使用生姜、甘草、明矾或石灰进行处理后可以减轻这种辛辣感。尽管这些解毒方法自古为人所知,但人们对其解毒半夏块茎的机制知之甚少。在本研究中,我们旨在揭示α-淀粉和甘草中的甘草甜素对半夏块茎解毒的有效性。方法:之前,我们发现生半夏的完整针晶具有亲脂性,而针晶变性会降低其亲油性和辛辣性。因此,我们开发了一种针晶变性测定方法(RDA),通过测量包含针晶石油醚(PE)层的吸光度来量化针晶的变性程度。然后使用该测定法测定α-淀粉或甘草(植物甘草的根和匍匐茎)煎剂对针晶变性的影响。结果:α-淀粉处理针晶显著增强了针晶的热变性。甘草煎剂、甘草酸和甘草次酸在高pH值下以钙依赖的方式显著变性针晶。甘草酸和甘草次酸也附着在变性针晶上。结论:半夏块茎中的α-淀粉在加热后有助于解毒。在传统的用甘草和石灰炮制半夏块茎的方法中,甘草中的甘草酸和钙离子对针晶的变性起着重要作用。

Oxalic acid in ginger specifically denatures the acrid raphides in the unprocessed dried tuber of Pinellia ternata

Objective:Pinellia Tuber,the dried tuber of Pinellia ternata,is widely used in Japanese Kampo medicines and traditional Chinese medicines.The unprocessed Pinellia Tuber is known to cause very strong acrid irritation at oral and laryngopharynx mucosa.Recent studies have shown that the sharp needle-like crystals called raphides,that are composed of calcium oxalate and proteins,are the main causative substances of the irritation.Ginger,the rhizome of Zingiber officinale,has been used in the processing to reduce the acridity of Pinellia Tuber since before the sixth century,however,the mechanisms of reducing acridity have not been scientifically proved yet.Methods:We developed the raphides denaturation assay(RDA)to quantify the degree of denaturation in the raphides to cause irritation.By their lipophilic characters,the raphides could be extracted in petroleum ether(PE)layer from powdered Pinellia Tuber suspended in water,and the contents of the raphides in PE layer were measured by the absorbance.By this assay,we conducted the activity-guided fractionation from the boiling water extract of ginger to find the ingredients to denature the raphides.We also conducted the gustatory tests to detect the change of the irritation of the denatured raphides.Results:The treatment of powdered Pinellia Tuber suspension with ginger extract reduced the distribution of raphides in PE layer in RDA in a concentration-dependent manner.The activity-guided fractionation using RDA revealed that oxalic acid was the main active ingredient in ginger extract to denature the raphides of Pinellia Tuber.Oxalic acid reduced the lipophilicity of the raphides in the thermo-,time-,and concentration-dependent manners,and its activity was affected by pH.The treatment of powdered Pinellia Tuber suspension with oxalic acid significantly reduced its acrid irritation in gustatory test in human.Conclusions:We found that oxalic acid is the main active ingredient in ginger to reduce the acrid irritation of Pinellia Tuber.

Annual meeting of the Japan Traditional Chinese Medicine Association: Quantifying and objectifying traditional Chinese medicine

Five researchers reported on their studies to quantify and objectify traditional medicine at the symposium 'Verification of Traditional Chinese Medicine' during the 2016 annual meeting of the Japan Traditional Chinese Medicine Association.Takao Namiki reported on a methodology to quantify tongue diagnosis.Tetsuhiro Yoshino presented work on predictive prescribing two Kampo formulas for dysmenorrhea,Tangkuei and Peony Powder (Danggui Shaoyao San) and Cinnamon Twig and Poria Pill (Guizhi Fuling Wan).Koh Iwasaki presented work on validation of a questionnaire for assessing qi stagnation and Mitsuyuki Takamura reported on application of the questionnaire to evaluate the efficacy of Pinellia and Magnolia Bark Decoction (Banxia Houpo Tang).Kaoru Sakatani presented research on near-infrared spectroscopy as a diagnostic tool for wei bing,a concept of pre-symptomatic state in traditional Chinese medicine.

Efficacy of Japanese traditional(Kampo) medicine for treating chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy: A retrospective case series study

AIM To investigate Japanese traditional(Kampo) medicine's effectiveness on cancer chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy(CIPN), we carried out this retrospective study.METHODS By searching our outpatient database of 3154 patients who consulted our outpatient clinic of Japanese-Oriental(Kampo) Medicine at Chiba University Hospital from November 2005 to December 2010, a total of 281 patients diagnosed with cancer were identified. Twentyfour patients out of the 281 patients identified met the following three conditions and were eligible for further investigation of the effectiveness of Kampo treatment: At least one course of cancer chemotherapy had been administered; numbness and pain appeared after the chemotherapy; and CIPN was diagnosed before they were given Kampo treatment.RESULTS The 24 patients included 6 males and 18 females and ranged in age from 39 to 86(mean 61.2 ± 11.5) years old. Kampo formulas were individually chosen by Kampo expert doctors based on Kampo-specific diagnostics. Beneficial outcomes were obtained by Kampo treatment in 20 out of the 24 cases(83.3%). Nine out 20 cases had a major response(the numbness and pain showed improvement or reduction by 50% or more), with 7 of 9 cases showing a more than 70% symptom reduction. Eleven out of 20 cases showed a minor response(less than 50% symptom reduction), and 4 out of the 24 cases had no beneficial response. The most frequently used formula was goshajinkigan(GJG), followed by hachimijiogan(HJG) and keishibukuryogan. Thirteen of the 24 cases(54.2%) were prescribed aconite rootcontaining formulas including GJG and HJG. Aconite root has "warming" effects and ameliorates pain and numbness; 21 out of 24 cases(87.5%) in total used warming formulas such as aconite root-containing formulas to reduce CIPN.CONCLUSION Our current study suggested that Kampo formulas chosen based on Kampo-specific diagnostics could be for treating CIPN that is refractory to conventional medicine.

Clinical efficacy of anti-Mullerian hormone inspection in supporting diagnosis for climacteric disorders

The diagnosis of climacteric disorders in gynecology is performed on the basis of symptoms rather than hormonal levels. Generally, the follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) level increases when the 17β-estradiol (E2) level decreases in menopause. However, the problem of these hormones should be determined by strict timing of sampling, and there are individual specificities of decreases of hormone levels. We considered that anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH) can be measured at any time of the menstrual cycle and that it shows ovary functional decline earlier than FSH/E2, and we examined whether AMH would possibly become a good index for climacteric disorders. The subjects were 163 healthy females and 21 patients with climacteric disorders between 20 and 59 years old. We examined AMH, FSH and E2 at the same time. It is understood that in healthy females, AMH decreases with age and a decline in ovary function occurs at a relatively early age. Patients visiting clinics for climacteric disorders often have normal-range serum FSH/E2 levels, and it is clear that these values could not serve as indices of menopause at these inspections. Upon measurement of AMH in patients with climacteric disorders, most showed less than normal range (< 14 pmol/L), suggesting a decline in ovarian function. In addition, AMH was low in females with climacteric disorders compared with those without them. In conclusion, AMH was suggested as an objective index for climacteric disorders and possibly as a new diagnostic marker.

Association of a cytosine-adenine repeat polymorphism in the estrogen receptor β gene with occurrence and severity of rheumatoid arthritis

We investigated the influence of the cytosine-adenine (CA) dinucleotide repeat polymorphism in intron 6 of estrogen receptor β (ERβ) gene on rheumatoid arthritis (RA) risk. One hundred and ninety-three RA patients and 77 control subjects with osteoarthritis (OA) were recruited. The CA repeat polymorphism was assayed by a dye-terminator cycle sequencing analysis. No statistically significant difference in the mean number of CA repeats between the RA and OA patients was observed (RA: 21.47, OA: 21.23, P = 0.324). The alleles were categorized according to the number of repeats: short (S, ≦21) and long (L, ≧22), in which the genotypes SS, SL, and LL were observed. No significant differences were observed for the allele and genotype distributions of this polymorphism in both patient groups. The RA patients were classified according to RA severity: mild (least erosive disease) and severe (more erosive and mutilating disease). Again, no significant difference in genotype frequency between these groups was observed, even after stratifying by sex. The present study indicates that additional studies are needed to clarify the roles of this polymorphism, estrogen, and ER in the development of autoimmune diseases.