A Pre-column Derivatization HPLC Method for the De-termination of Peimine and Peiminine in Bulbus Fritillar-iae

A pre-column derivatization HPLC method for the determination of peimine(P)and peiminine(PE)in Bulbus Fritillariae has been developed. Under the derivatization conditions optimized,the calibration curve is Y1=-3.83×103+1.33 ×105X1,r=0.998 for P and Y2=-7.86 × 102+6.33 × 104X2,r=0995 for PE,where Y is the peak area and X is the weight of the alkaloid; the average recovery is 98.0%(n=5, RSD=2.1%) for P and 101.0%(n=5,RSD=4.1%)for PE,the linear range is from 0.504 μg to 3.126μg for P and from 0.520μgto 3.328μgfor PE,respectively. Results of the determination of the two alkaloids in several samples of different Fritillaria species from various parts ofthe country are presented.The results suggest that P and PE are two major chemical constituents in bulbs of different Fritillaria species,and that the method developed is generally appli-cable to the determination of the hydroxy group on aliphatic fused ring systems without steric hin-drance.

Advances in Research of Pharmacological Effects of Peimine

Peimine is an important effective component of the traditional Chinese medicine Fritillariae Thunbergii Bulbus.It not only has multiple pharmacological activities such as anti-inflammatory,antitussive,analgesic and anti-cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury,but also can play anti-cancer effects by inhibiting the proliferation of cancer cells,inducing apoptosis of cancer cells,and inhibiting the metastasis and invasion of cancer cells.The present article summarizes and reviews the pharmacological activities and action mechanism of peimine in recent years.

Mechanistic studies of the transport of peimine in the Caco-2 cell model

Fritillaria thunbergii Miq. has been widely used in traditional Chinese medicine for its expectorant, antitussive, antiinflammatory and analgesic properties. Moreover, modern pharmacological studies have demonstrated that F. thunbergii Miq. has efficacy in the treatment of leukemia and cancers of the liver and cervix. Although the alkaloid, peimine, is largely responsible for these pharmacological effects, it has very low oral bioavailability. The aim of this study was to investigate the intestinal absorption of peimine in Caco-2 cell monolayers. Having demonstrated that peimine is non-toxic to Caco-2 cells at concentrations o200 μmol/L, the effect of peimine concentration, p H, temperature, efflux transport protein inhibitors and EDTA-Na_2 on peimine transport were studied. The results show that peimine transport is concentration-dependent; that at p H 6.0 and 7.4, the P_(app(AP-BL))of peimine is not significantly different but the Papp(BL-AP)) is; that both Papp(AP-BL)and P_(app(BL-AP))at 4 1C are significantly higher than their corresponding values at 37 1C; that the P-glycoprotein(P-gp) inhibitors, verapamil and cyclosporin A, increase absorption of peimine; and that EDTA-Na2 has no discernible effect. In summary,the results demonstrate that the intestinal absorption of peimine across Caco-2 cell monolayers involves active transport and that peimine is a substrate of P-gp.

The ＂Gongfu Finger＂ and Leaming in the Analects

After having discussed three main features of Ni Peimin＇s understanding of the gongfu orientation in reading the Analects, this essay examines the first of the key terms in the whole of the book, i.e., xue/＂learning＂ （学） and critically elaborates how our understanding of Confucius could be deepened and enriched under the guidance of this new orientation which Ni calls the ＂gongfu finger.＂