Study on essential oils of medicinal plants in insect repellent / 中国中药杂志

Mosquitoes are seriously harmful to human health for transmitting some mortal diseases. Among the methods of mosquito control, synthetical insecticides are the most popular. However, as a result of longterm use of these insecticides, high resistant mosquitos and heavy environmental pollution appear. Thus, eco-friendly prevention measures are taken into the agenda. Essential oils extracted from medicinal plants have repellent and smoked killing effects on mosquitoes. With abundant medical plants resources and low toxicity, they have the potential of being developed as a new type of mosquito and insect repellent agent. The recent application advances of essential oils of medicinal plants in insect repellent and its application limitations are overviewed. This review will provide references for the future development and in-depth study of essential oils.

Review of scientific preservation techniques for traditional Chinese medicine becoming mouldy during storage / 中国中药杂志

All kinds of traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs) differed from each other with different chemical components and properties. Owing to poor conditions and technologies, and the lack of scientific preservation, most TCMs will easily become mouldy during the processes of growth, harvest, handling, translation and especially storage, which will not only influence the quality, safety and efficacy of TCMs, but also cause serious waste and economic losses, and even do great harm to human health. The process of storage is closely related to the qualities of TCMs with many interference factors. Therefore, scientific preservation of TCM during storage is crucial to prevent them from being mouldy. This review analyzed the important harm of mouldy TCMs, summarized the internal and external factors of resulting in TCMs to become mouldy. Based on the above discussion, together with the characteristics and limitations of current TCM preservation techniques, we prospect novel, scientific and reasonable preservation techniques, expecting to provide references for scientific preservation of TCMs to avoid becoming mouldy and guarantee their qualities.

Study on species and valence state of heavy metals and deleterious elements of mineral medicine / 中国中药杂志

As an important part of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), mineral medicine plays an irreplaceable role. However, little has been reported on its species and valence state of heavy metals and deleterious elements, and also the relevance to pharmacological effect and toxicology. The present paper, in a new perspective, summarized the determination of the species and valence state of heavy metals and deleterious elements in recent years, discussed the progress of the pharmacological effect and toxicology, and prospected for future study which might provide reference for mineral medicine.

Application of cytometric bead array in rapid high-throughput detection of small molecules / 中国中药杂志

Cytometric bead array (CBA) is a new analytical technique, which can achieve real-time and rapid detection of targeted components in a small amount of sample. With many advantages of high throughput screening, high specificity and sensitivity, low cost, easy operation and good repeatability, this CBA technique has been widely used for the detection of various components in foods, agricultural products and environmental samples. Recently, it has got significant development in rapid detection of small molecules. This review briefly introduced the theory of CBA technique, summarized the application in the analysis of small molecules, such as mycotoxins, pesticide residues, shellfish toxins, and then prospected the application of trace small molecules detection in the complex matrices of traditional Chinese medicine and the development trend of it.