Application and prospect of "couplet medicine" techniques in preservation of Chinese medicinal materials / 中国中药杂志

Chinese medicinal materials (CMMs) are easily to be contaminated by all kinds of molds to produce various mycotoxins due to their internal factors and the external environmental conditions during the growth, harvesting, processing, and especially storage processes. This will not only affect the quality of CMMs, resulting in enormous financial loss, but also influence the safety and effectiveness of CMMs, posing potential threats to human health. With the increase in awareness of "traditional Chinese medicine health" idea, more and more attention has been paid on how to prevent and control these CMMs from being mouldy to guarantee their safety. Some physical and chemical techniques have been restricted for protecting CMMs due to their own disadvantages. As a green, safe and economic strategy for the preservation of CMMs, "couplet medicine" technique based on the principle of "protecting CMM with another CMM" has been developed: two kinds of CMMs are stored together and fight against each other to prevent mildew metamorphism, exhibiting no obvious changes in color, smell and quality. Nowadays, certain application results have been obtained for the "antagonistic storage" method based on the above mode and principle. In this paper, we would review and discuss the mechanism, practical application and the problems of "couplet medicine" technique, and provide scientific evidences for developing safe and effective tools to protect CMMs from being mouldy.

Prevalence of the Metabolic Syndrome Among Employees in Northeast China / 中华医学杂志(英文版)

<p><b>BACKGROUND</b>The metabolic syndrome is a clustering of metabolic abnormalities and has been associated with increased risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular disease. This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of the metabolic syndrome among employees in Northeast China.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Totally, 33,149 employees who received health screening in the International Health Promotion Center in the First Hospital of Jilin University were enrolled. Height, weight, waist circumference, blood pressure, fasting plasma glucose, triglyceride, high-density lipoprotein, and low-density lipoprotein were recorded. Three definitions for the metabolic syndrome were applied, revised National Cholesterol Education Program's Adult Treatment Panel III (NCEP ATP III) criteria, the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) criteria, and the Chinese Diabetes Society (CDS) criteria.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Overall, the age-standardized prevalence of the metabolic syndrome was 22.9%, 20.6%, and 15.3% based on definitions of revised NCEP ATP III criteria, the IDF criteria, and the CDS criteria, respectively. Men had higher age-standardized prevalence than women in all three definitions (P < 0.05). The prevalence was 27.1%, 24.5%, and 20.4% for men; 17.1%, 15.4%, and 8.3% for women, respectively. The most common metabolic component with the metabolic syndrome was overweight (54.7% of men had an elevated body mass index, and 35.9% of women had central obesity).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>A large proportion of employees among Northeast China have the metabolic syndrome. These findings place emphasis on the need to develop aggressive lifestyle modification for patients with the metabolic syndrome and population level strategies for the prevention, detection, and treatment of cardiovascular risk.</p>

CorreIation research of retinaI thickness and axiaI Iength in non -proIiferative diabetic retinopathy / 国际眼科杂志(Guoji Yanke Zazhi)

· AlM: To explore the correlation of center retinal thickness and axial length in non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy ( DR) . · METHODS:A total of 80 cases ( 155 eyes ) of non-proliferative DR patients were divided into three groups according to the axial length, 22~24mm of 27 cases (51 eyes) were normal group, 24 ~26mm of 28 cases ( 55 eyes) were long axis group, >26mm of 25 cases ( 49 eyes) were super long axis group.The center retinal thickness and ocular axial length of three groups were measured and the correlation of center retinal thickness and axial length were analyzed. · RESULTS:Among the inner ring and outer ring, the center retinal thickness of upper and lower, bitamporal and nasal side of super long axis group was thicker than that in normal group, with statistically significant difference ( P0.05 ), but retinal thickness get thinning with increased of axial length on the inner ring and outer ring area, showed a negative correlation ( rinner ring =-0.63, router ring=-0.67, P ·CONCLUSlON:Center retinal thickness and ocular axial length in non -proliferative DR patients, and center retinal thickness of super long axis patients are thinning obviously.

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.

Circulated extraction of flavonoids from Glechoma longituba by ultrasonic wave / 中国中药杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the optimum condition of extraction for the flavonoids in Glechoma longituba by ultrasonic wave.</p><p><b>METHOD</b>Using orthogonal test, the effects of ultrasonic power, ultrasonic time, extraction temperature and solvent concentration were considered, the comprehensive evaluation was guided by the content of the flavonoids determined by ultraviolet spectrophotometer.</p><p><b>RESULT</b>The optimum condition was as follow: ultrasonic power; 800 W, ultrasonic time 90 min, extraction temperature 40 degrees C, solvent concentration 65%. The flavonoids concent is 5.228%.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Using ethanol as solvent, circulated extraction of the flavonoids from G. longituba with ultrasonic wave is feasible with the optimum conditions in low temperature, short time and high production yield.</p>