Anti-microbial and anti-inflammatory effects of Cheonwangbosim-dan against Helicobacter pylori-induced gastritis

Background@#There are various Helicobacter species colonizing the stomachs of animals. Although Helicobacter species usually cause asymptomatic infection in the hosts, clinical signs can occur due to gastritis associated with Helicobacter in animals. Among them, Helicobacter pylori is strongly associated with chronic gastritis, gastric ulcers, and gastric cancers. As the standard therapies used to treat H. pylori have proven insufficient, alternative options are needed to prevent and eradicate the diseases associated with this bacterium. Cheonwangbosim-dan (CBD), a traditional herbal formula that is popular in East Asia, has been commonly used for arterial or auricular flutter, neurosis, insomnia, and cardiac malfunction-induced disease. @*Objectives@#The present study investigated the antimicrobial effect of CBD on H. pylori-infected human gastric carcinoma AGS cells and model mice. @*Methods@#AGS cells were infected with H. pylori and treated with a variety of concentrations of CBD or antibiotics. Mice were given 3 oral inoculations with H. pylori and then dosed with CBD (100 or 500 mg/kg) for 4 weeks or with standard antibiotics for 1 week. One week after the last treatment, gastric samples were collected and examined by histopathological analysis, real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction, and immunoblotting. @*Results@#Our results showed that CBD treatment of AGS cells significantly reduced the H. pylori-induced elevations of interleukin-8, inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2). In the animal model, CBD treatment inhibited the colonization of H. pylori and the levels of malondialdehyde, inflammation, proinflammatory cytokines, iNOS, and COX-2 in gastric tissues. CBD also decreased the phosphorylation levels of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase family. @*Conclusions@#This study suggests that CBD might be a prospective candidate for treatingH. pylori-induced gastric injury.

Quantification of the Bioactive Components of the Rhizomes of Curcuma wenyujin and Assessment of Its Anti-inflammatory Effect in Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia-1 Cells

In this study, the marker compounds of Curcumae Rhizoma (CR) were simultaneously quantified by high-performance liquid chromatography equipped with a photodiode array detector and the anti-inflammatory effects of CR extract and marker compounds in human benign prostatic hyperplasia epithelial-1 (BPH-1) cell lines were investigated. The marker components (4S,5S)-(+)-germacrone-4,5-epoxide, furanodienone, and germacrone, were separated on Gemini C₁₈ columns (250 mm × 4.6 mm, 5 µm) at 40 ℃ by using a gradient of two mobile phases eluting at 1.0 mL/min. Prostaglandin E₂ (PGE₂) levels in Human BPH-1 cells were determined with an ELISA kit. The coefficients of determination in a calibration curve of each analyte were all 0.9997. The limits of detection and quantification of the three compounds were 0.10 – 0.32 µg/mL and 0.30 – 0.98 µg/mL, respectively. The content of three compounds, (4S,5S)-(+)-germacrone-4,5-epoxide, furanodienone, and germacrone, in the CR sample were found to be 5.79 – 5.92 mg/g, 4.72 – 4.86 mg/g, and 1.06 – 1.09 mg/g, respectively. Regarding pharmacological activity against benign prostatic hyperplasia, CR and its components significantly suppressed PGE₂ levels of BPH-1 cells. The established analysis method will help to improve quality assessment of CR samples and related products. In addition, CR and its components exhibit anti-inflammatory activity in BPH-1 cells, suggesting the inhibitory efficacy of these compounds against the pathogenesis of BPH.

Protective effect of water extract of guibi-tang against pulmonary inflammation induced by cigarette smoke and lipopolysaccharide / 한국실험동물학회지

Water extract of guibi-tang (GB), a traditional Chinese, Japanese, and Korean herbal medicine, is used to treat memory impairment, insomnia, and peptic ulcers. The aim of this study was to investigate the protective effects of GB on pulmonary inflammation induced by cigarette smoke (CS) and lipopolysaccharide (LPS). C57BL/6 mice were used to develop a pulmonary inflammation model by exposing them to CS for 1 h per day for 7 days. LPS was intranasally administered to mice under mild anesthesia on day 5. GB was administered 1 h before CS exposure at doses of 50 or 100 mg/kg for 7 days. Our results showed that GB suppressed the CS and LPS induced elevation in inflammatory cell counts in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF), with significant reductions in protein, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, and interleukin (IL)-6 levels. Histological studies revealed that GB decreased the inflammatory cell infiltration into lung tissue caused by CS- and LPS-exposure. GB also significantly decreased the CS and LPS-induced expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) in the lung tissue. Taken together, GB effectively attenuated airway inflammation caused by CS and LPS. These results indicate that GB is a potential therapeutic herbal formula for pulmonary inflammatory disease.

Simultaneous Determination of the Seven Phenylpropanoids in Xanthii Fructus Using a HPLC-PDA and LC-MS

Xanthii Fructus has been traditionally used for the treatment of rhinitis, rheumatoid arthritis, and eczema. In this study, a high-performance liquid chromatography-photodiode array (HPLC-PDA) method was developed and then used for the simultaneous analysis of eight phenylpropanoids in Xanthii Fructus. The analytical column used for this separation was a SunFire™ C₁₈ column, maintained at 40℃. The mobile phase used was 1.0% acetic acid in distilled water and 1.0% acetic acid in acetonitrile with gradient elution. For identify of each component, the mass spectrometer (MS) was used a Waters triple quadrupole mass spectrometer requipped with electrospray ionization (ESI) source. The HPLC-PDA method showed good linearity: correlation coefficients were ≥ 0.9996. The limits of detection and quantification of the eight compounds were 0.02 – 0.04 and 0.06 – 0.14 µg/mL, respectively. The extraction recoveries ranged from 97.51 to 108.67%. The relative standard deviation values of intra- and inter-day precision were 0.06 – 1.55 and 0.09 – 1.68%, respectively. The validated HPLC-PDA method was applied to simultaneously analyse the amounts of eight phenlypropanoids in Xanthii Fructus.

Quantitative Analysis of Eleven Bioactive Constituents of a Traditional Herbal Medicine, Yeonggyechulgam-tang using, Liquid Chromatography-Electrospray Ionization Tandem Mass Spectrometry

This study proposes a sensitive and selective liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry method of efficiently assessing the quality of a traditional herbal medicine called Yeonggyechulgam-tang (YGCGT). The following compounds 1 – 11, namely, liquiritin apioside (1), liquiritin (2), liquiritigene (3), coumarin (4), cinnamic acid (5), cinnamaldehyde (6), glycyrrhizin (7), atractylenolide III (8), atractylenolide II (9), atractylenolide I (10), and pachymic acid (11) were separated on a UPLC BEH C₁₈ column (2.1 × 100 mm, 1.7 µm) at a column temperature of 45℃ eluted with a gradient condition of 0.1% (v/v) formic acid in distilled water and acetonitrile. The correlation coefficient of the calibration curve of the eleven constituents was ≥ 0.9936. The limits of detection and quantification of the compounds 1 – 11 were 0.06 – 4.73 ng/mL and 0.17–14.20 ng/mL, respectively. Using this analytical method, the compound 11 in lyophilized YGCGT decoction extract was not detected, while the compounds 1 – 10 were detected 0.13–166.43 mg/g.

Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis of Thirteen Marker Components in Traditional Korean Formula, Samryeongbaekchul-san using an Ultra-Performance Liquid Chromatography Equipped with Electrospray Ionization Tandem Mass Spectrometry

For efficient quality control of the Samryeongbaekchul-san decoction, a powerful and accurate an ultra-performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) coupled with electrospray ionization (ESI) tandem mass spectrometry (MS) method was developed for quantitative analysis of the thirteen constituents: allantoin (1), spinosin (2), liquiritin (3), ginsenoside Rg1 (4), liquiritigenin (5), platycodin D2 (6), platycodin D (7), ginsenoside Rb1 (8), glycyrrhizin (9), 6-gingerol (10), atractylenolide III (11), atractylenolide II (12), and atractylenolide I (13). Separation of the compounds 1 - 13 was performed on a UPLC BEH C₁₈ column (2.1 × 100 mm, 1.7 µm) at a column temperature of 40 ℃ with a gradient solvent system of 0.1% (v/v) formic acid aqueous-acetonitrile. The flow rate and injection volume were 0.3 mL/min and 2.0 µL. Calibration curves of all compounds were showed good linearity with values of the correlation coefficient ≥ 0.9920 within the test ranges. The values of limits of detection and quantification for all analytes were 0.04 - 4.53 ng/mL and 0.13 - 13.60 ng/mL. The result of an experiment, compounds 2, 6, 12, and 13 were not detected while compounds 1, 3 - 5, and 7 - 11 were detected with 1,570.42, 5,239.85, 299.35, 318.88, 562.27, 340.87, 12,253.69, 73.80, and 115.01 µg/g, respectively.

Erratum: Quatification of Flavonoid Contents in Chungsimyeonja-tang, a Multi-Herbal Decoction, and Its Protective Effect against Cisplatin-induced Nephrotoxicity

Correction for incorrect control groups (A, B, and C) at a Fig. 3. and Fig. 4. respectively. NPS 2014 20(4): 251-257.

Simultaneous determination of liquiritin, nodakenin and glycyrrhizinin Guibi-tang, a traditional herbal prescription by HPLC-PDA

A simple, convenient, rapid and accurate high-performance liquid chromatographic [HPLC] method was established for the simultaneous determination about three ingredients of a traditional herbal prescription, Guibi-tang [GBT]: liquiritin [1], nodakenin [2] and glycyrrhizin [3]. Chromatographic analysis on the three components was separated within 35 min on a Gemini C[18] column and maintained at 40[degree sign]C. The mobile phase consisted of water with 1.0% [v/v] acetic acid [solvent A] and acetonitrile with 1.0% [v/v] acetic acid [solvent B] in gradient mode at a flow-rate of 1.0 mL/min. Chromatograms were acquired at 254, 280 and 330 nm in a photodiode array [PDA] detector. The calibration curves showed excellent linearity [R[2]=1.0000]. The average recovery of three compounds was >/= 93.5%, with a relative standard deviation [RSD] of

Protective Effect of Sauchinone Against Regional Myocardial Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury: Inhibition of p38 MAPK and JNK Death Signaling Pathways

Sauchinone has been known to have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects. We determined whether sauchinone is beneficial in regional myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury. Rats were subjected to 20 min occlusion of the left anterior descending coronary artery, followed by 2 hr reperfusion. Sauchinone (10 mg/kg) was administered intraperitoneally 30 min before the onset of ischemia. The infarct size was measured 2 hr after resuming the perfusion. The expression of cell death kinases (p38 and JNK) and reperfusion injury salvage kinases (phosphatidylinositol-3-OH kinases-Akt, extra-cellular signal-regulated kinases [ERK1/2])/glycogen synthase kinase (GSK)-3beta was determined 5 min after resuming the perfusion. Sauchinone significantly reduced the infarct size (29.0% +/- 5.3% in the sauchinone group vs 44.4% +/- 6.1% in the control, P < 0.05). Accordingly, the phosphorylation of JNK and p38 was significantly attenuated, while that of ERK1/2, Akt and GSK-3beta was not affected. It is suggested that sauchinone protects against regional myocardial I/R injury through inhibition of phosphorylation of p38 and JNK death signaling pathways.