Main Chemical Constituents and Modern Pharmacological Action of Schisandrae Chinensis Fructus： A Review / 中国实验方剂学杂志

Schisandrae Chinensis Fructus （SCF）， a commonly used clinical Chinese medicine， is rich in chemical components， including lignans， volatile oils， polysaccharides， organic acids， terpenoids， and flavonoids. It has a high medicinal value， which is manifested in the treatment of palpitation， insomnia， spontaneous perspiration， internal heat， consumptive thirst， fluid injury， chronic cough， asthma， frequent urination， enuresis， nocturnal emission， chronic diarrhea， etc. Modern pharmacological studies have found that SCF has sedative， hypnotic， brain invigorating， analgesic， anticonvulsant， and antidepressant effects in the central nervous system. In the digestive system， it can regulate gastrointestinal motility and protect the liver. In the immune system， it is effective in resisting tumors and human immunodeficiency virus （HIV）， and also potent in protecting the cardiovascular system， lung and kidney， reducing blood sugar， promoting reproduction， inhibiting bacteria， resisting hyperprolactinemia and osteoporosis， and protecting against embryo damage and retina injury. This study reviewed the available research on clinical pharmacological effects of SCF in recent years and provided ideas for further research on SCF and theoretical basis for its rational development and utilization， which was of great guiding significance in clinical disease treatment.

Transcriptomics of therapeutic effect of Huangqi Liuyi decoction in treating type 2 diabetes / 中国中药杂志

In this study, Illumina sequencing platform was applied in sequencing rat pancreas, counting expression of target points, analyzing expression differences among blank group, model group and Huangqi Liuyi decoction group and exploring the therapeutic effect and mechanism of Huangqi Liuyi decoction on type 2 diabetes mellitus. According to the result, 24.25% of these genes belonged to the unknown functional class, which was the largest classification unit according to the classification analysis of genes by eggNOG. The rest were classified as energy conversion, amino acid transport and metabolism, nucleotide transport and metabolism, carbohydrate transport and metabolism, coenzyme transport and metabolism, and lipid transport and metabolism, etc.Huangqi Liuyi decoction may play a therapeutic role in the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus through four metabolic pathways, namely environmental information processing, cellular process, organismal system and human diseases according to KEGG enrichment analysis. This study shows that, Huangqi Liuyi decoction can significantly improve the fasting blood glucose and glycosylated hemoglobin in type 2 diabetic rats.

Application of high resolution melting curve to identification of Cimicifugae Rhizoma / 药学学报

High-resolution-melting analysis (HRM) is a new technology derived from qPCR and is widely used in the study of polymorphism, genotyping, and single nucleotide mutation. Advantages of HRM include cost-effectiveness and time-efficiency over PCR-based genotyping. However, the application of HRM in the authentication of herbal products is still limited with few studies on the classification and identification of herbal products. In this study, Cimicifugae Rhizoma was used as an example to verify the stability and accuracy of HRM technique in identification of Chinese materia medica. HRM assay was established for identification based on ITS2 region of Cimicifugae Rhizomas and its adulterants (including 41 samples). Our findings showed that HRM allows not only the identification of adulteration but also the quantification of the most common admixture. This study is significant for better quality in the verification of the authenticity of herbal medicine. The method is promising for future identification of traditional Chinese medicinal materials.

Study on quality evaluation of sequence and SSR information in transcriptome of Astragalus membranacus / 中国中药杂志

In this study, 454/Roche GS FLX sequencing technology was used to obtain the data of the Astragalus membranaceus. Four hundred and fifty-four Sequencing System Software was applied to carry out the transcription of the group from scratch. Using MISA tools, 9 893 unigenes were selected for the sequence of the genome of A. membranaceus, and the information of SSR locus was analyzed. According to the result, the average length of reads was 413 bp, about 86% of the reads was involved in the splicing, the length of the N50 was 1 205 bp, the number of unigenes was measured by the whole transcript. 1 729 SSR loci in the A. membranaceus transcriptome were searched, the occurrence frequency of SSR was 9.24%, the frequency of SSR in the whole transcriptome was 13.42%, the average length of SSR was 7.97 kb. One hundred and twenty-seven kinds of core repeat sequences were found, the dominant type was TG/AC type of dinucleotide, it appeared to account for 4.25% of the total SSR locus. The results of the sequence of the transcription of the A. membranaceus transcriptome revealed the overall expression, and a large number of unigenessequence was obtained, and the SSR locus in the genome of the A. membranaceus is high, and the type is diverse, and the polymorphism of the gene is high.

Identification of moutan cortex and its adulterants by ITS2 sequence / 中国中药杂志

To explore a new method to identify Moutan Cortex to guarantee its safe use, internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) sequence was used to identify Moutan Cortex and its adulterants. DNA was extracted and target fragments were amplified. Sequences were analyzed and assembled by CodonCode Aligner V3.7.1. Genetic distances were computed and phylogenetic tree was constructed based on kimura 2-parameter (K2P) model by MEGA 5.0. The length of the 20 ITS2 sequences of Moutan Cortex from nine different places is 227 bp, and no variation site was detected. The maximum inter-specificK2P distance of Moutan Cortex is 0, the minimum intra-specific K2P distance is 0.041, the average intra-specific K2P distance is 0.222. According to NJ analysis, Moutan Cortex from different places can get together as one branch with bootstrap support values 99%, which indicates Moutan Cortex can be easily distinguished from its adulterants. Using ITS2 sequence can accurately identify Moutan Cortex and its adulterants, it is an effective supplementary to traditional identification methods.

Identification of cimicifugae rhizoma and its adulterants using ITS2 sequence / 中国中药杂志

In order to identify Cimicifugae Rhizoma from its adulterants and to ensure its safe use, the internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) sequence of Cimicifugae Rhizoma and its adulterants were amplified and bidirectionally sequenced by DNA barcoding technology. Sequence assembly and consensus sequence generation were performed by the CodonCode Aligner V3.7.1. The genetic distances were computed by MEGA 5.0. Identification analyses were performed using neighbor-joining (NJ) methods. The length of ITS2 sequence of the three origin plants of Cimicifugae Rhizoma include Cimicifuga heracleifolia, C. foetida, C. dahurica was 217, 219 and 219 bp, respectively. Their intraspecific genetic distance was much lower than the interspecific genetic distance with their closely related species. The NJ tree of ITS2 indicated that the three origin plants of Cimicifugae Rhizoma formed a monophyletic clade, Cimicifugae Rhizoma and its adulterants could be distinguished clearly. The authors proposed that ITS2 sequence was suitable for the authentication of Cimicifugae Rhizoma and its adulterants.

Identification of cattail pollen (puhuang), pine pollen (songhuafen) and its adulterants by ITS2 sequence / 中国中药杂志

DNA barcoding method was conducted for the authentication of pollen materials due to difficulty of discriminating pollen materials bearing morphological similarity. In this study, a specific focus was to identify cattail pollen (Puhuang) and pine pollen (Songhuafen) samples from their adulterants which are frequently mixed-together. Regions of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS2) from 60 samples were sequenced, and new primers for cattail pollen were designed according to the sequence information. The results from the NJ trees showed that the species of pine pollen, Puhuang and their adulterants can be classified as obvious monophyly. Therefore, we propose to adapt DNA barcoding methodology to accurately distinguish cattail pollen, pine pollen and their adulterant materials. It is a great help for drug regulatory agency to supervise the quality of medicinal materials.