Ethnobotanical study on medicinal plants from the Dragon Boat Festival herbal markets of Qianxinan, southwestern Guizhou, China

Dragon Boat Festival herbal markets in the Qianxinan Buyi and Miao Autonomous Prefecture of southwestern Guizhou have a long well-conserved history.These markets,which are a feature of Buyi and Miao traditional medicines,contain a rich diversity of medicinal plants and traditional medical knowledge.Today,people in southwestern Guizhou still believe that using herbs during the Dragon Boat Festival prevents and can treat disease.In this study,we identified the fresh herbal plants sold at the herbal markets of Xingren City and Zhenfeng County in Qianxinan Buyi and Miao Autonomous Prefecture and quantified their importance.We identified 141 plant species(belonging to 114 genera and 61 families).The plant family with the most species was Asteraceae(14 species).Informants reported that most medicinal plants are herbaceous,with 95.7%of plants used for decoction and 30.5%used for medicinal baths.Medicinal plants are most commonly used to treat rheumatism,injury,and abdominal diseases.The utilization frequency index and relative importance values indicated that Artemisia argyi and Acorus calamus are the most important plants sold at herbal markets during the Dragon Boat Festival.The price of medicinal materials sold in the market may serve as an indicator of the conservation status of species in the region.These findings indicate that the Dragon Boat Festival herbal markets in the Qianxinan Buyi and Miao Autonomous Prefecture fully embodies the characteristics of indigenous ethnomedicine and culture,and also exhibits the diversity of plant resources.We recommend that rare and endangered plants in this region be domesticated and protected.

Food-advanced glycation end products aggravate the diabetic vascular complications via modulating the AGEs/RAGE pathway

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of high-advanced glycation end products(AGEs) diet on diabetic vascular complications. The Streptozocin(STZ)-induced diabetic mice were fed with high-AGEs diet. Diabetic characteristics, indicators of renal and cardiovascular functions, and pathohistology of pancreas, heart and renal were evaluated. AGEs/RAGE/ROS pathway parameters were determined. During the experiments, the diabetic mice exhibited typical characteristics including weight loss, polydipsia,polyphagia, polyuria, high-blood glucose, and low-serum insulin levels. However, high-AGEs diet effectively aggravated these diabetic characteristics. It also increased the 24-h urine protein levels, serum levels of urea nitrogen, creatinine, c-reactive protein(CRP), low density lipoprotein(LDL), tumor necrosis factor-α(TNF-α), and interleukin-6(IL-6) in the diabetic mice. High-AGEs diet deteriorated the histology of pancreas, heart, and kidneys, and caused structural alterations of endothelial cells, mesangial cells and podocytes in renal cortex. Eventually, high-AGEs diet contributed to the high-AGE levels in serum and kidneys, high-levels of reactive oxygen species(ROS) and low-levels of superoxide dismutase(SOD) in serum, heart, and kidneys. It also upregulated RAGE mR NA and protein expression in heart and kidneys. Our results showed that high-AGEs diet deteriorated vascular complications in the diabetic mice. The activation of AGEs/RAGE/ROS pathway may be involved in the pathogenesis of vascular complications in diabetes.