ABSTRACT
Traditional Chinese medicine has a long history in clinical application, and been proved to be safe and effective. In recent years, the toxicity and side-effects caused by the western medicine have been attracted much attention. As a result, increasing people have shifted their attention to traditional Chinese medicine. Nonetheless, due to the natural origin of traditional Chinese medicine and the lack of basic knowledge about them, many people mistakenly consider the absolute safety of traditional Chinese medicine, except for well-known toxic ones, such as arsenic. However, according to the clinical practices and recent studies, great importance shall be attached to the toxicity of non-toxic traditional Chinese medicine, in particular the hepatotoxicity. Relevant studies indicated that the toxicity of non-toxic traditional Chinese medicine is closely correlated with individual gene polymorphism and constitution. By discussing the causes and mechanisms of the hepatotoxicity induced by non-toxic traditional Chinese medicine in clinical practices, we wrote this article with the aim to provide new ideas for individualized clinical therapy of traditional Chinese medicine and give guidance for rational and safe use of traditional Chinese medicine.
ABSTRACT
Modernization of Chinese materia medica (CMM) is the main direction of development of CMM. As a complex system, CMM has the whole characteristics with multi-component, multi-channel and multi-target. However, the lack of material base of CMM and the unknown mechanism of action restrict the development of modern medicine. Strengthening the theoretical exploration of Chinese medicine components, which could improve the technical level of component preparation and promote the development of CMM component preparation, is the key to realize the modernization of CMM. This paper reviews the preparation technology of CMM component combined with components of biological pharmacy classification system for the purpose of improving the bioavailability of components based on the “component structure” theory.
ABSTRACT
Ligusticum chuanxiong is one of the common traditional Chinese medicinal herbs for treating various cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, and a number of previous studies have demonstrated that the extract of L. chuanxiong has strong antioxidative activity. This paper was mainly aimed to investigate the effects and possible mechanisms of L. chuanxiong extraction on oxidative stress induced by myocardial ischemia injury in rats. The rats were subcutaneously injected with isoprenaline hydrochloride to induce myocardial ischemia injury and treated for 2 weeks. Then the cardiac indexes of the rats were recorded. The concentration of malondialdehyde (MDA) and activities of serum creatine kinase (CK), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), aspartate transaminase (AST), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC) were measured by colorimetry. Light microscope was used to observe the morphological changes of myocardium, and the protein expressions of nuclear factor E2 related factor 2 (Nrf2), quinone oxidoreductase (NQO1) and hemeoxygenase-1 (HO-1) in cardiac tissue were evaluated by Western blot. The results showed that L. chuanxiong extraction could decrease cardiac indexes and the values of CK, LDH and AST in blood serum, increase activities of serum SOD and T-AOC, reduce serum MDA concentration, improve myocardium structure after ischemia injury, and up-regulate the protein expressions of Nrf2, NQO1 and HO-1 in cardiac tissue. These findings revealed that the cardioprotective effects of L. chuanxiong extraction may be related to inhibiting oxidative stress through the activation of Nrf2 signaling pathway.
ABSTRACT
Idiosyncratic drug-induced liver injury (IDILI) is a kind of unique adverse drug reaction with relative high morbidity compared with other idiosyncratic diseases. Its occurrence, however, has nothing to do with pharmacological effects and clinical dosage of drugs administered, and only a small number of susceptible individuals will suffer from it. Especially to deserve to be mentioned, the proportion of TCM-induced IDILI showed an ascending trend year by year. So in this article, the author has reviewed some facts related with TCM-induced IDILI, including the predisposing causes and occurrence mechanism, and tries to provide reference for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of TCM-induced IDILI through the analysis of characteristics and research status of TCM-induced IDILI and exploration of the internal relationship between Chinese medicine constitution type and IDILI.
ABSTRACT
The pharmaceutical materials are divided into coarse and fine types in the development of traditional Chinese medicine preparations. Fine materials with clear composition, stable content and high quality control conform to the international development trend of traditional Chinese medicine preparations. In this paper, the status of fine materials was analyzed, and the development ideas were tentatively put forward. On the one hand, the study on simple methods and efficient equipment shall be strengthened for the simultaneous separation of multiple components of traditional Chinese medicine; on the other hand, the knowledge for traditional Chinese medicine shall be broadened to further develop the scientific compatibility of monomers under the guidance of the theory of traditional Chinese medicine.
ABSTRACT
In order to clarify the effect of intestinal flora on the absorption and metabolism of paeoniflorin in vivo, the metabolism of paeoniflorin by rat intestinal flora was studied under the in vitro anaerobic condition. Paeoniflorin was incubated with rat anaerobic intestinal flora for 48 h, and UPLC was used to detect the changes of paeoniflorin at different incubation time points under the following chromatographic conditions：WelchromTM C₁₈ chromatographic column (4.6 mm×100 mm, 5 μm), with 0.1% formic acid(A)-acetonitrile(B) as the mobile phase for gradient elution. The flow rate was 0.4 mL•min⁻¹, and column temperature was 30 ℃. UPLC-Q-TOF-MS with positive ion mode(ESI ion source) was applied to investigate the structural characterization of metabolic products. The structures of the metabolites were identified by accurate molecular weight, TOF-MS/MS fragmentation information, combined with retention time and literature data review, and the intestinal metabolic rules were then analyzed. After incubation for 24 h, the paeoniflorin was metabolized completely, and the resulting metabolites(albiflorin, albiflorinaglycone, deacylate albiflorin, deacylate albiflorin aglycone and paeonilactone-B) were detected in rat intestinal flora. The metabolic pathway analysis showed that the isolated rat intestinal flora first transformed peoniflorin into albiflorin, and then further metabolized by glucose removal, phenyl group removal, or four-membered ring pyrolysis and rearrangement. Paeoniflorin was gradually transformed into more hydrophobic metabolites with smaller molecular mass, which were better absorbed by the intestinal tract.
ABSTRACT
To establish an UPLC method for the simultaneous determination of 8 compounds in Eclipta Herba, such as isoquercitrin, luteoloside, demethylwedelolactone, isochlorogenic acid A, isochlorogenic acid C, luteolin, wedelolactone and apigenin. The experiment was performed with a Waters Acquity UPLC BEH C₁₈ (2.1 mm×100 mm, 1.7 μm) column by gradient elution of 0.1% formic acid in water and acetonitrile: 0-4 min,10%-13% A; 4-10 min, 13%-16% A; 10-13 min, 16%-25% A; 13-17 min, 25%-28% A; 17-20 min,28%-40% A;20-25 min,40%-95% A. The flow rate was 0.3 mL•min⁻¹.. The condition of was the colum temperature was maintained at 35 ℃ and the detected wavelength was set at 350 mm. 8 components were separated clearly by this method. Also a good linearity was obtained between the chosen concentration(r≥0.999 0). The measured data showed that the recovery rate range from 96.60%-103.4% (n=6) and their RSD values were 0.86%-2.4%. The method has high recovery rate, good reproducibility and stability. It provides a scientific basis for the identification and quality evaluation of Eclipta Herba.
ABSTRACT
Female rats were fed with ethanol extraction of Alismatis Rhizoma for 6 months to study its nephrotoxicity and molecular mechanism. HPLC was used to determine the components in ethanol extraction of Alismatis Rhizoma. An assessment of renal pathology was determined by HE staining. Meanwhile Western blot, immunohistochemical assay and q-PCR were used to assess the protein expression and mRNA level of Kim-1, clusterin, LCN2, osteopontin, ceruloplasmin and TIMP1 in rat kidney. Eight components were identified in ethanol extraction of Alismatis Rhizoma. Tubule-interstitial inflammation, renal tubular epithelial cell exfoliation and morphological changes of cell were observed in rat kidney. Comparing with control blank group, the protein expression of clusterin, Kim-1, LCN2, osteopontin and TIMP1 in rat kidney was significantly increased while the protein expression of ceruloplasmin was significantly decreased. The mRNA level of Kim-1, TIMP1, osteopontin, clusterin and LCN2 was significantly increased while the mRNA level of ceruloplasmin was significantly decreased. In this study, it was inferred that there is chronic toxicity in kidney by using high dosage of ethanol extraction of Alismatis Rhizoma for a long time. And the underlying molecular mechanism was related to regulate the protein expression of ceruloplasmin, clusterin, Kim-1, LCN2, osteopontin and TIMP1.