Collecting Knowledge about Medicinal Ingredients in Northwestern Sichuan in the 1950s

This article explores China’s state-level knowledge production on medicinal ingredients in northwestern Sichuan in the 1950s.Drawing on county-level archives,published materials and interviews,this historical article traces how different levels of governments and state-owned trading companies produced knowledge about medicinal ingredients and its production.It argues that on one hand the state’s procurement standards codified the knowledge about medicinal ingredients from the marketplace and the local producers.On the other hand,direct extraction of knowledge from the medicine gatherers and cultivators verbalized and collected the previously tacit local knowledge about the production of medicinal ingredients,which would help to alleviate the shortage in the supply of traditional Chinese medicines throughout the 1950s.

Effect of Chinese Herbal Medicinal Ingredients on IL-2 mRNA Levels of T Lymphocytes in Mice Measured Using Semiquantification RT-PCR

In this study, the IL-2 mRNA levels of T lymphocytes in normal mice stimulated by nine Chinese herbal medicinal ingredients （CHMIs） were measured using semiquantification reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. The results showed that astragalus polysaccharide （APS）, epimedium polysaccharide （EPS）, Chinese angelica polysaccharide （CAPS）, propolis flavone （PF）, and astrogalosides （AS） promoted IL-2 mRNA levels in T lymphocytes in vitro and in vivo to differing degrees, and the level of IL-2 mRNA induced by propolis polysaccharide （PPS） in vitro was higher than that induced by the control, which differed from that of PPS in vivo.

A review on cocrystal of active ingredients in traditional Chinese medicine

In the development of new drugs products,especially the development of traditional Chinese medicine active ingredients,solubility and oral bioavailability are the main factors which are restricting the development of new drugs,whereas the physicochemical properties of active ingredients are the key element to affecting these factors.Pharmaceutical cocrystal provides an excellent opportunity to develop new drugs with excellent physical and chemical properties such as melting point,solubility,stability and bioavailability while retaining the pharmacological properties of individuals active pharmaceutical ingredients among pharmaceutical cocrystal compounds.Traditional Chinese herbal medicine has the characteristics of multiple pathways and multiple targets,mainly because it contains many active ingredients,like cocrystals thereof with many components.The active ingredients extracted from traditional Chinese herbal medicine have a wide range of pharmacological activities,but most of the active ingredients affect the development of traditional Chinese medicine active ingredients due to their physical and chemical properties such as solubility.Traditional Chinese medicine pharmaceutical cocrystals can not only improve the physical and chemical properties of drugs without changing the internal structure of drugs,so as to provide a new scheme for the development of traditional Chinese medicine active ingredients.This paper reviews the research progress of active ingredients of traditional Chinese medicine pharmaceutical cocrystal.The preparation methods of cocrystals are summarized and the advantages of cocrystals are illustrated with examples.

Application of Caenorhabditis elegans in screening active ingredients of traditional Chinese medicine

People continue to recognize the important role of Chinese medicine in the treatment of diseases,and there is an urgent need to clarify the mechanism of Chinese medicine.Because of the multi-target and multi-component characteristics of traditional Chinese medicine,it is difficult to elaborate from a single perspective.As a high-quality animal model,Caenorhabditis elegans with the characteristics of small size and fast reproduction,has been widely used in traditional Chinese medicine activity experiments.In this article,Caenorhabditis elegans,as model organisms used to screen the active components of traditional Chinese medicine were reviewed.

Chinese medicine active ingredients or monomers increase neuronal synaptic plasticity

Totally three articles focusing on Schisandra N-butanol extract effects on hippocampal CA1 synaptic morphology and plasticity in ovarectomized mice, as well as catalpol and GBE50 effects on neuronal synaptic plasticity in the motor cortex following cerebral ischemia were published in three issues. We hope that our readers find these papers useful to their research.

Impacts of Active Ingredients of Three Traditional Chinese Medicine on Immune Effect of PCV2 Vaccine

[ Objective ] The paper was to screen the active ingredients of traditional Chinese medicine （ TCM）, which significantly enhanced the immune effect of porcine circovirus type 2 （PCV2） vaccine. [Method]Sixty-six 14-day-old piglets were randomly divided into 11 groups, including immune control group, blank control group and nine drug groups. Piglets that were reared for 21 d were intramuscularly injected with 2 mL of inactivated vaccine in cervical region expect for blank control group. Piglets in nine drug groups were administrated with 5 mL of matrine, scutellarin and astragalus polysaecharide （ASP） at three doses （ high dose 12 mg, medium dose 8 nag, low dose 4 mg） three days before and after immunization; piglets in blank control group and irmnune control group were administrated with equal volume of normal saline. Five piglets were randomly selected from each group to collect venous blood at 7, 14, 21 and 28 d post immunization, and the PCV2 antibody level, the concentration of specific immunoglobulin [gG, the changes in peripheral blood lymphocyte subsets, and the content of serum IL-2 and IFN-γ were determined. [ Result] The immunological effects of active ingredients of three TCM on PCV2 vaccine all enhanced at different degree. The effects of scutellarin middle dose group was the best. [ Conclusion ] Scutellarin could be used as a candidate drug for PCV2 vaccine immunoenhancer.

Similarity measurement of Chinese medicine ingredients for cold-hot nature identification

Objective:Nature theory of Chinese medicine (CM) is the core basic theory of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), in which cold-hot nature is the focus of research. Studies have found that CM ingredients are the material basis for the production of medicine natures. Therefore, it is speculated that CMs with similar composition of substances should have similar medicinal nature. Modern work studies cold-hot medicine of CMs with chemical fingerprinting technology because the chemical fingerprint data of CM can reflect the whole composition of CM ingredients. Methods:To verify the hypothesis above, in this work, we study quantifying the similarity of CM ingredients to fingerprint similarity, and explore the relationship between the composition of CMs and cold-hot nature. Firstly, we utilize ultraviolet (UV) spectrum technology to analyze 61 CMs, which have clear cold-hot nature (including 30 ‘cold’ CMs and 31 ‘hot’ CMs). Secondly, with the constructed fingerprint database of CMs, a distance metric learning algorithm is studied to metric the similarity of UV fingerprints. Finally, a retrieval scheme is proposed to build a predictive identification model to identify cold-hot nature of CMs. Results:By means of numerous experiment analyses, ultraviolet spectrum data of petroleum ether solvent can better represent CMs to distinguish between cold and hot natures. Comparing with existing classical models, the proposed identification scheme has better predictive performance. Conclusion:The experimental results prove our inference that CMs with similar composition of substances should have similar medicinal nature. The proposed prediction model is proved to be effective and feasible.

Breeding and Evaluation of New Iron Yam (Dioscorea opposita Thunb) Varieties

[Objective] This study was conducted to develop some new iron yam （Dioscorea opposita） varieties with excellent cooking, eating and nutritional qualities. [Method] The fresh weight per plant, drying rate, dry weight per plant, yield, allan- toin content, water soluble extract content and disease resistance of seven new iron yam cultivars （No.1, No.2, No.4, No.6, No.8, No.9 and No.10） obtained through spaceflight mutation breeding were measured and compared with control （No.11）. Then, the nutrition quality of two elite cultivars No. 6 and No.10 was determined by comparing with the control. [Result] The eight iron yam cultivars ranked in descend- ing order of their fresh weight per plant as follows： No.6（0.255 kg）〉No.10（0.254 kg）〉 No.4（0.242 kg）〉No.9（0.237 kg）〉No.1（0.233 kg）〉No.11（0.206 kg）〉No.2（0.191 kg）〉No.8 （0.157 kg）. There was no significant difference in fresh weight per plant between No.6 and No.10, but extremely significant difference between No.6 and the control, No.10 and the control. The eight iron yam cultivars ranked in descending order of their drying rate as follows： No.2 （32.641%）〉No.10 （32.230%）〉No.9 （28.223%）〉No.6 （25.174%）〉No.8（25.122%）〉No.11 （25.043%）〉No.1 （24.291%）〉No.4（20.234%）. The dry- ing rate of both No.6 and No.10 was higher than that of the control. The eight iron yam cultivars ranked in descending order of their dry weight per plant as follows： No.10（0.082 kg）〉No.9（0.067 kg）〉No.6（0.064 kg）〉No.2（0.062 kg）〉No.1（0.056 kg）〉No.11 （0.052 kg）〉No.4 （0.049 kg）〉No.8 （0.039 kg）. The dry weight per plant of both No.6 and No.10 is higher than that of the control. The eight iron yam cultivars ranked in descending order of their allantoin content as follows No.6 （0.484%）〉No.4 （0.467%）〉 No.10 （0.399%）〉No.ll （0.386%）〉No.9 （0.378%）〉No.8 （0.350%）〉No.2 （0.342）〉No.1 （0.325%）. The allantoin content of No.6 was significantly higher than that of No.10 and the control. There was significant difference in allantoin content between No.6 and No.10, but no significant difference between No 10 and the control. The eight iron yam cultivars ranked in descending order of their extract content as follows No. 6（20.49%）〉No.2（16.01%）〉No.4（15.54%） 〉No. 10（15.35%）〉No. 1 （14.48%）〉No. 11 （14.10%） 〉No.9（13.88%）〉No.8（11.87%）. The extract content of No.6 exhibited extremely sig- nificant difference with that of No.10 and the control, and the extract content of No. 10 was also significantly different from that of the control. The taste of No.10 was dry, soft, floury, sweet and fragrant, better than that of the other seven cultivars. No.6 had the strongest resistance to Gloeosporium pestis and Cylindrosporium dioscoreae. No.10 had a middle resistance to G. pestis and a strong resistance to C. dioscoreae. No.6 and No.10 had higher contents of starch, reducing sugar, pro- tein and ash, lower water content and better nutrition quality than the control. [Conclusion] No.10 can be popularized as a new variety of edible iron yam, and No.6 as a new variety of medicinal iron yam.

In vivo and in vitro effects of QHF combined with chemotherapy on hepatocellular carcinoma

Objective： To investigate the synergistic anti-tumor effect of QHF （a Chinese medicine formula with anti- tumor active ingredients, including 800 mg/kg Cinobufotalin, 14 mg/kg Ginsenoside Rg3, 5.5 mg/kg Notoginseng and 100 mg/kg Lentinan） when combined with the chemotherapy drug cisplatin （DDP）. Methods： Hepatocellular carcinoma H22 cells were implanted into mice and after the transplants were successfully established the animals were divided into four groups, namely a normal saline（NS） control group, QHF group, DDP group and QHF＋DDP group. The tumor growth was monitored and the survival time determined. In vitro studies employing H22 cells used the first three groups, and determined the effects of QHF and DDP on tumor cell cycle distribution, apoptosis and morphologic changes in vitro. Results： QHF significantly inhibited the growth of tumors and prolonged the survival time of mice with hepatocellular carcinomas. QHF combined with DDP could attenuate DDP-induced leucopenia, spleen and thymus atrophy and other indicators of toxicity. The inhibition rate of tumor growth reached 82.54% with QHF＋DDP, and QHF prolonged the life span of DDP-treated mice by 66.83%. In the in vitro experiments tumor cells showed morphological changes characteristic of apoptosis by both light and transmission electron microscopy in the QHF group, and the apoptosis rate was 33.85%. Moreover, the proportion of cells in the G0/G1 phase was increased and those in the S-phase decreased. Conclusion： QHF combined with DDP could significantly inhibit tumor growth, induce the apoptosis of tumor cells and effectively attenuate DDP toxicity.

Investigation of paeonol-geniposide on acute alcoholic liver injury based on uniform design method

Objective:To explore the optimal ratio and compatibility effect of paeonol-geniposide combination on acute alcoholic liver injury by uniform design.Methods:Lieber-DeCarli alcoholic liquid feed was used to induce acute alcoholic liver injury in mice.Uniform design was used to select the best dosage combination of paeonol and geniposide,and the related indexes of liver injury and oxidative stress were detected by kit.Serum inflammatory factors were detected by ELISA,and the expressions of p38 MAPK,JNK and NF-κB P65 related proteins in liver were detected by Western-blot.Results:The regression equation suggested that paeonol:geniposide=220:20 was the best ratio of paeonol and geniposide to resist alcoholic liver injury.Compared with the model group,the liver injury indexes and oxidation products of the paeonol+geniposide group decreased significantly,the antioxidant activity of liver tissue increased significantly,and the expression levels of p-p38 MAPK,p-JNK and NF-κB P65 protein decreased significantly.Conclusion:The optimal dosage of paeonolgeniposide was effectively optimized by uniform design and pharmacodynamic analysis.The combination of the two drugs could reduce the alcoholic liver injury by reducing the oxidative stress injury and inflammatory response in the liver tissue of mice,and its effect might be related to the targeting of p38 MAPK/JNK/NF-κB channel.

Recent advances of traditional Chinese medicine on the prevention and treatment of COVID-19

Coronavirus disease-2019(COVID-19)is a new highly infectious disease caused by a novel coronavirus.Recently,the number of new cases infected pneumonia in the world continues to increase,which has aroused great concern from the international community.At present,there are no small-molecule specific anti-viral drugs for the treatment.The high mortality rate seriously threatens human health.Traditional Chinese medicine(TCM)is a unique health resource in China.The combination of TCM and Western medicine has played a positive and important role in combating COVID-19 in China.In this review,through literature mining and analysis,it was found that TCM has the potential to prevent and treat the COVID-19.Then,the network pharmacological studies demonstrated that TCM played roles of anti-virus,anti-inflammation and immunoregulation in the management of COVID-19 via multiple components acting on multiple targets and multiple pathways.Finally,clinical researches also confirmed the beneficial effects of TCM on the treatment of patients.This review may provide meaningful and useful information on further drug development of COVID-19 and other viral infectious diseases.

Research Progress on the Pharmacological Mechanisms of Chinese Medicines that Tonify Qi and Activate Blood Against Cerebral Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury

Cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury(CIRI) refers to a pathological phenomenon that aggravates the injury after the restoration of blood perfusion and oxygen supply to the cerebral ischemia-induced tissues and organs, with a relatively high incidence. The traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) believes that Qi deficiency and blood stasis are the cause of CIRI. Therefore, Chinese medicine for tonifying Qi and activating blood is regarded as an important choice for the treatment of CIRI. In recent years, it has been found that many Chinese herbal medical ingredients and compound Chinese medicine(CCM) have significant anti-CIRI effects, and their mechanisms of action mainly include improving brain blood supply, neuroprotection, regulating signal pathways such as TLR4/HO-1/Bcl-2, protecting mitochondrial function, regulating related protein levels, and regulating oxidative molecule levels. This article summarizes and introduces the pharmacological mechanisms of Tonifying-Qi and activating-blood Chinese medicine and CCM which have the function of anti-CIRI. Our goal is to provide effective reference for further researches on the cerebral protection of related TCMs or compounds and their clinical application.