In vitro screening of traditionally used medicinal plants in China against Enteroviruses

AIM： To search for new antiviral agents from traditional Chinese medicine, specifically anti-enterovirosuses agents. METHODS： The aqueous extracts （AE） of more than 100 traditionally used medicinal plants in China were evaluated for their in vitro anti-Coxsackie virus B3 activities with a MTT-based colorimetric assay. RESULTS： The test for AE of 16 plants exhibited anti- Coxsackie virus B3 activities at different magnitudes of potency. They can inhibit three steps （inactivation, adsorption and replication） during the infection. Among the 16 plants, Sargentodoxa cuneata （Oliv.） Rehd. et Wils., Sophora tonkinensis Gapnep., Paeonia veitchii Lynch, Spatholobus suberectus Dunn. and Cyrtorniurn fortunei J, sm. also have activity against other enterovirus, including Coxsackie virus 135, Polio virus I, Echo virus 9 and Echo virus 29. Cell cytotoxic assay demonstrated that all tested AE had CC50 values higher than their EC50 values. CONCLUSION： The sixteen traditionally used medicinal plants in China possessed antMral activity, and some of them merit further investigations.

Effects of Traditional Chinese Medicinal Plants on Antiinsulin Resistance Bioactivity of DXMS-Induced Insulin Resistant HepG2 Cells

Medicinal plants have a long history of use in China to treat diabetic symptoms.Ancient Chinese medical manuscripts and ethnobotanical surveys document plant remedies that continue to be actively used in China for the treatment of diabetic symptoms.Based on a systematic ancient Chinese medical manuscripts review in combination with ethnobotanical survey,16 medicinal plants for the traditional treatment of diabetic symptoms were identified for the evaluation of anti-insulin resistance bioactivity.The biological activity of 16 medicinal plants was tested on dexamethasone(DXMS)-induced insulin resistant HepG2 cells.The result shows that 11 of the 16 medicinal plants enhanced glucose uptake of DXMS-induced insulin resistant HepG2 cells,thereby demonstrating their ability to increase insulin sensitivity,other five medicinal plants including Astragalus membranaceus were found ineffective.The study shows that ancient Chinese medical manuscripts and ethnobotanical surveys on plants for the prevention and treatment of diabetic symptoms provide a promising knowledge base for drug discovery to mitigate the global diabetes epidemic.

Traditional Herbal Medicines Against CNS Disorders from Bangladesh

The majority of the population in Bangladesh uses traditional plant-based medicines to manage various ailments,including central nervous system(CNS)disorders.This review presents ethnobotanical information and relevant scientific studies on plants used in traditional healthcare for the management of various CNS disorders in Bangladesh.The information on the medicinal plants of Bangladesh effective against CNS disorders published in scientific journals,books,and reports was com-piled from different electronic databases using specific key words.The present article provides comprehensive information on a total of 224 medicinal plant species belonging to 81 families used for the treatment of CNS disorders by the various peoples of Bangladesh.In total,we reviewed more than 290 relevant papers.In this study,leaves were found as the most often used plant organ,followed by roots,fruits,whole plants,barks,seeds,stems,rhizomes,and flowers.The Fabaceae family contributes the highest number of used species,followed by Rubiaceae,Lamiaceae,Cucurbitaceae,Vitaceae,Euphorbiaceae,Malvaceae,and Zingiberaceae.The most frequently used species(in decreasing order)are Asparagus racemosus,Centella asiatica,Stephania japonica,Aegle marmelos,Coccinia grandis,Tabernaemontana divaricata,Bacopa monnieri,Abroma augusta,and Scoparia dulcis.This review may serve as a starting point for a rational search for neuroactive natural products against CNS disorders within the Flora of Bangladesh.

Influence of Eco-friendly Manures on Leaf Biomass Production of a Traditional Medicinal Plant Adhatoda vasica Nees under Upper Brahmaputra Valley Agroclimatic Zone

Effect of different organic manures on production of leaf biomass of a potential medicinal plant Adhatoda vasica Nees. was studied at Dibrugarh University under Upper Brahmaputra Valley Agroclimatic Zone of India during 2008-2010. The aim was to know about the agronomic requirements of the wild medicinal plant for its organic cultivation. The plant reproduces by vegetative means through stem cutting. The nursery plants were prepared from the terminal soft-wood cuttings. The experiments were laid down in RBD with 3 m ×6 m block sizes. Cowdung, compost and vermicompost were used as organic manure. Manures were applied at three levels eg. cowdung at 12.0, 19.5 and 27.0 t ha-1 compost at 7.5, 15.0 and 27.7 t ha-1 and vermicompost at 2.5, 3.0 and 3.75 t ha-1. Eighty percent of every dose was applied one week ahead of plantation and the rest was applied after two months of plantation. Irrigation was not necessary as usual rainfall occurred during the period. Hand weeding was done first time after two months of plantation and again just before application of the second part of the manure. Mature leaves were first harvested by picking them in the first week of October to avoid loss due to leaf fall and finally all the leaves were harvested by teaming the branches in second week of November. In the next year, the mature leaves of the newly sprouted branches on the teamed plants were harvested in May and the final harvest was done by teaming the branches again in October. The total leaf biomass was expressed in t ha-1 （dry wt.）. The total nitrogen in the manure was determined by kjeldahl method, phosphorus by spectrophotometric method and potassium by flame photometric method, pH in 1：5 water suspension and organic matter by Walkley and Black＇s titration method. Maximum leaf biomass （2.74 t ha1） and economic benefit （Rs. 30,941 ha-1） were obtained in cowdung at 27.0 t ha-1 followed by cowdung at 19.5 t ha-1（2.50 t hal and Rs. 26,955 ha-1）, compost at 22.7 t ha-1 （2.35 t ha-1 and Rs. 22,132 hal）. Organic cultivation ofA. vasica, using locally available and cheap organic manures like cowdung and compost is highly encouraging. The technique is eco-friendly and its value will be many times more if it is calculated in terms of environmental health. The technique is therefore, recommended for sustainable management of the wild and important medicinal plant of this Agroclimatic Zone. Vermicompost is not advisable because of its higher input cost than the others.

Ethnobotanical and Indigenous Knowledge of Important Plants in East Hararghe, Eastern Ethiopia

An ethnobotanical study was conducted in East Hararghe, Ethiopia to identify and investigate the use of various plants by the traditional healers and communities engaged in domestic, pesticide and medicinal use. A total of 78 species were observed to be used by the local inhabitants in the region for the treatments of various ailments. Out of these, herbs constitute 49% followed by trees(36%) and shrubs only 15%. However, most frequently used plant parts were leaf and aerial parts(20) followed by seed(13), fruit(12), other parts(10), rhizome(7) and bark(1). Most of the plants were found to be used for medicinal, aromatic and food flavouring(spices, condiments) purposes. Out of 78 species recorded in the present study, 11 were reported to cure stomachache, seven for cold, cough and respiratory problem, six for diarrhoea and five species were found capable of curing fever. Fabaceae was the largest family contributing to medicinal plant use with seven species followed by Solanaceae, Myrtaceae,(5 spp.), and Zingiberaceae, Asteraceae, Liliaceae(4 spp. each). Some of the important plants utilized for taking care of variety of ailments are Azadirachta indica, Brassica nigra, Balanites aegyptiaca, Maytenus ovatus, Rosmarinus officinalis and Trigonella foenum graecum. Most of these medicinal and aromatic plants(MAPs) play a significant role in the household economy and were observed to be very popular among the people. Unpopular plants were left out of the study. This study provides useful and basic information on usage of different plants for conducting further studies aimed at conservation and documentation of traditional medicine system and economic welfare of rural peoples of the East Hararghe, Ethiopia. It also revealed that indigenous practices contributed to sustainable management of plants.

Cultural Practices for Propagation of Spatholobus suberectus via Cutting into Polybags

In this paper,the propagation of Spatholobus suberectus Dunn.was optimized based on the research results conducted in propagation for many years and the actual need for the planting materials.According to the requirements of Good Agricultural Practices for Chinese Medicinal Drugs,cultural practices for propagation of S.suberectus were summed up and standardized,including the environmental requirements,land preparation,bed preparation,cutting of scions,cuttings treatment,cutting,management of cuttings at the nursery,bagged cuttings ready for transplanting,packing and handling,transportation,and preparation of records for archives.

Anticancer and multidrug-resistance reversing potential of traditional medicinal plants and their bioactive compounds in leukemia cell lines

Multidrug resistance remains a serious clinical problem in the successful therapy of malignant diseases. It occurs in cultured tumor cell lines, as well as in human cancers. Therefore, it is critical to develop novel anticancer drugs with multidrug-resistance modulating potential to increase the survival rate of leukemia patients. Plant-derived natural products have been used for the treatment of various diseases for thousands of years. This review summarizes the anticancer and multidrug-resistance reversing properties of the extracts and bioactive compounds from traditional medicinal plants in different leukemia cell lines. Further mechanistic studies will pave the road to establish the anticancer potential of plant-derived natural compounds.

Pharmaceutical resource discovery from traditional medicinal plants:Pharmacophylogeny and pharmacophylogenomics

The worldwide botanical and medicinal culture diversity are astonishing and constitute a Pierian spring for innovative drug R&D.Here,the latest awareness and the perspectives of pharmacophylogeny and pharmacophylogenomics,as well as their expanding utility in botanical drug R&D,are systematically summarized and highlighted.Chemotaxonomy is based on the fact that closely related plants contain the same or similar chemical profiles.Correspondingly,it is better to combine morphological characters,DNA markers and chemical markers in the inference of medicinal plant phylogeny.Medicinal plants within the same phylogenetic groups may have the same or similar therapeutic effects,thus forming the core of pharmacophylogeny.Here we systematically review and comment on the versatile applications of pharmacophylogeny in(1)looking for domestic resources of imported drugs,(2)expanding medicinal plant resources,(3)quality control,identification and expansion of herbal medicines,(4)predicting the chemical constituents or active ingredients of herbal medicine and assisting in the identification and determination of chemical constituents,(5)the search for new drugs sorting out,and(6)summarizing and improving herbal medicine experiences,etc.Such studies should be enhanced within the context of deeper investigations of molecular biology and genomics of traditional medicinal plants,phytometabolites and metabolomics,and ethnomedicine-based pharmacological activity,thus enabling the sustainable conservation and utilization of traditional medicinal resources.

Effects of plant growth regulators on the rapid proliferation of shoots and root induction in the Chinese traditional medicinal plant Atractylodes macrocephala

We developed an efficient plant regeneration protocol for rapidly propagating Atractylodes macrocephala Koidz,an important traditional Chinese medicinal plant,via shoot organogenesis.Shoot multiplication was induced on Murashige-Skoog(MS)medium supplemented with various concentrations of N-phenyl-N-1,2,3-thidiazol-5-ylurea(TDZ),6-benzylaminopurine(BA)andα-naphthaleneacetic acid(NAA).Rooting was induced on half-strength MS medium supplemented with NAA and indolebutyric acid(IBA).The maximum mean number of shoots(5.61)was obtained from a single explant by the combined effect of 1.08μmol/L NAA and 2.25μmol/L TDZ.The longest roots and a minimum number of roots were produced when they were cultured in a medium without plant growth regulators.The shortest roots and the largest number of roots were observed in the medium supplemented with 2.7μmol/L NAA.

RECENT PROGRESS IN THE STUDY OF ANTICANCER DRUGS ORIGINATING FROM PLANTS AND TRADITIONAL MEDICINE IN CHINA

Recent progress in the studies of anticancer drugs originating from plants in China is reviewed in this paper. Guided by the experience of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), several new anticancer drugs have been found. Indirubin from indigofera tinctoria (青黛) is useful for the treatment of chronic myelocytic leukemia. On the basis of structure-activity relationship studies of these compounds, a second generation drug (N-methyl isoindigotin) has been developed. Clinical studies demonstrated that it is more effective than indirubin, 1O-hydroxy campothecin derived from Camptotheca acuminata (喜树) have exhibited definite activity on rodent tumors and it is used for phase Ⅱ studies. Iris latea pallasi Fischer var. Chinensis (马蔺子) may serve as

RESEARCH OF ANTIMICROBIAL AND RESISTANCE MODIFYING AGENTS FROM BENINESE PLANTS USED IN TRADITIONAL MEDICINE

In a world of increasing resistance to current antibiotics,search of novel therapeutic options is urgently needed.The aim of this work was to screen plant crude extracts for direct or indirect(inhibition of resistance)antimicrobial activity.Four crude extracts from 12 plants traditionally used in Benin for the treatment of infections were

SURVEY OF PLANTS USED IN TRADITIONAL MEDICINE AGAINST MALARIA IN BUKAVU AND UVIRA/DR CONGO

Malaria,for its high prevalence and morbidity,is one of the major tropical parasitic diseases,particularly in DR Congo.Its therapy not only uses modem antimalarials,for which many Resistance problems are encountered,but also medicinal plants which are promising sources for new and effective antimalarials.This study was conducted

IN VITRO AND IN VIVO EVALUATION OF THE SAFETY OF SOME BENINESE PLANTS USED IN TRADITIONAL MEDICINE

About 80%of population in developing countries use traditional remedies in their usual health care and plants used in traditional medicine are an interesting alternative to expensive and hardly available modern medicines,mainly in rural areas.Moreover,they are a promising source of new drugs structurally innovative.Therefore it is important to investigate their biological properties and we focused on5 beninese plants:Byrsocarpus coccineus Schumach.&Thonn(Connaraceae),Carpolobia lutea G.Don(Polygalaceae),

Plant pharmacophylogeny:past,present and future

The concept of“pharmacophylogeny”was proposed by Peigen Xiao in the 1980s based on long-term studies of Chinese researchers since ancient times and especially the 1950s.The complicated relationships and connectivity between kinship of medicinal plants,their chemical profiles and therapeutic utilities are consistent goals of pharmacophylogeny studies,which benefit innovative drug R&D.In the present work,we reviewed the origin and a brief history of research in this field,as well as the status quo and recent progress of pharmacophylogeny.The concept“pharmacophylogenomics”is put forward to represent the expanding utility of pharmacophylogeny in botanical drug R&D.Pharmacophylogeny and pharmacophylogenomics are the synthesis of multiple disciplines,such as chemotaxonomy,plant morphology,plant biochemistry/molecular biology and omics,etc.Medicinal plants within the same phylogenetic groups may have the same or similar therapeutic compounds/effects,thus forming the core of pharmacophylogeny,which is the scientific law summed up from practice and applied to practice after refining and sublimation.In the past,pharmacophylogeny plays a big role in looking for alternative resources of imported drugs in China.At present,it continues to play an active role in expanding medicinal plant resources,quality control/identification of herbal medicines,as well as predicting the chemical constituents or active ingredients of herbal medicine and the identification and determination of chemical constituents.In the ongoing future,it will play a bigger role in the search for new drugs,sorting out,summarizing,and improving herbal medicine experiences,thus boosting the sustainable conservation and utilization of traditional/natural medicinal resources.