Prospects and Problems for Identification of Poisonous Plants in China using DNA Barcodes / 生物医学与环境科学（英文）

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>Poisonous plants are a deadly threat to public health in China. The traditional clinical diagnosis of the toxic plants is inefficient, fallible, and dependent upon experts. In this study, we tested the performance of DNA barcodes for identification of the most threatening poisonous plants in China.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Seventy-four accessions of 27 toxic plant species in 22 genera and 17 families were sampled and three DNA barcodes (matK, rbcL, and ITS) were amplified, sequenced and tested. Three methods, Blast, pairwise global alignment (PWG) distance, and Tree-Building were tested for discrimination power.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The primer universality of all the three markers was high. Except in the case of ITS for Hemerocallis minor, the three barcodes were successfully generated from all the selected species. Among the three methods applied, Blast showed the lowest discrimination rate, whereas PWG Distance and Tree-Building methods were equally effective. The ITS barcode showed highest discrimination rates using the PWG Distance and Tree-Building methods. When the barcodes were combined, discrimination rates were increased for the Blast method.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>DNA barcoding technique provides us a fast tool for clinical identification of poisonous plants in China. We suggest matK, rbcL, ITS used in combination as DNA barcodes for authentication of poisonous plants.</p>

Evaluation of the capacity of personal protection on poison emergency items in Chinese disease control and prevention institutes / 中华预防医学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To analyze the capacity of personal protection on poison emergency items in Chinese disease control and prevention institutes.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Evaluation analysis based on data obtained from investigating personal protection equipments and professional knowledge quizzing about personal protection in poisoning control of 57 different level centers for disease control and prevention selected from China by a multi-stage stratified sampling.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>All 80.70% of the institutes possessed the protection equipments, provincial, municipal, county level institutes were 100.00%, 95.24%, 66.67%, respectively, with significant statistical difference (H = 7.94, P < 0.05). The average level of the type of individual protective equipments in disease control and prevention institutes was (5.42 +/- 4.00) kinds, the average points in category of provincial, municipal, county level institutes were (11.33 +/- 3.67), (6.52 +/- 3.16), (3.47 +/- 3.10) kinds, being statistically significant (F = 17.30, P < 0.05); type difference counts of disease control and prevention institutes in economic development, secondary, less-developed regions were (6.41 +/- 4.03), (3.55 +/- 3.35), (6.45 +/- 4.07) kinds, with statistical significance (F = 3.70, P < 0.05). Protection equipments chiefly possessed were latex gloves, gauze masks and C-protective clothing. Protective clothing and respiratory protective equipments were insufficient evidently. The average points in testing personal protection basic knowledge were (71.39 +/- 12.52) points; there were no differences between different institutes with different economic regions, levels, technical posts and title degrees.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Certain advances have been achieved in recent years in personal protection capacity of institutes for disease control and prevention, but far from the actual demands, and maybe no enough effective response on emergency occurred.</p>

Development and application of poison databank and poisonous animal and plants sample databank / 中华预防医学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To establish a comprehensive,easily approached, operated, and searched internet poison databank as to providing professional poison data and knowledge of effective treatment for those consented such as medical staff, and emergency response team in the shortest time.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>We established a computer poison databank, by adopting B/S structure, using SQL Server databank, and explore technology, in which all information may easily be explored and obtained by users.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The database integrated the information in relating to the substances identifiers, physical and chemical properties, toxicology data, clinical manifestation while intoxication, emergency response guides, effective treatment, anything related to the special antidotes, preventive measures, poison analysis, and manufacturers of chemicals, pharmaceuticals, herbs, pesticides, animal, plant, bacteria, fungi, productions and toxins. Otherwise some information about poison control organizations and experts, literatures about poison case reports, poison incidents, were also involved in the system, which can also provide a shortcut, convenient, and exact search.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>The databank might be easily used on several fields, providing important information with acute poison incidents disposal and clinic treatment.</p>