How to improve CHMs quality: Enlighten from CHMs ecological cultivation.

Chinese herbal medicines (CHMs) are one of the important bioresources of medicine, which works by unlocking nature's ability to prevent diseases and recover from illnesses. Recently, it has ascended to the world stage and become a global icon. Nowadays, a considerable of researches have focused on the quality evaluation of CHMs. However, it is difficult to meet the reasonable needs of human beings for safe drug use to evaluate the quality of a huge number of inferior goods for the CHMs contaminated by pesticides and heavy metals. Hence to explore an eligible medicinal plant cultivation pattern, which can provide high quality CHMs sustainably, is most promising. This review analyzed the situation and characteristics of medicinal plant resources in different periods, including wild-harvested and cultivated resources during different stages, putting forward that ecological cultivation must be the way to develop medicinal plant cultivation and to obtain high quality CHMs.

Rapid Authentication of Ginkgo biloba Herbal Products Using the Recombinase Polymerase Amplification Assay.

Species adulteration in herbal products (HPs) exposes consumers to health risks. Chemical and morphological methods have their own deficiencies when dealing with the detection of species containing the same active compounds in HPs. In this study, we developed a rapid identification method using the recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA) assay to detect two species, Ginkgo biloba and Sophora japonica (as adulteration), in Ginkgo biloba HPs. Among 36 Ginkgo biloba HP samples, 34 were found to have Ginkgo biloba sequences, and 9 were found to have Sophora japonica sequences. During the authentication process, the RPA-LFS assay showed a higher specificity, sensitivity and efficiency than PCR-based methods. We initially applied the RPA-LSF technique to detect plant species in HPs, demonstrating that this assay can be developed into an efficient tool for the rapid on-site authentication of plant species in Ginkgo biloba HPs.

[Development of FTIR fingerprint for identification of armand clematis stem (Chuanmutong) and related herbs].

Armand clematis stem (Clematidis Armandii Caulis, Chuanmutong) is a widely used Chinese herb to disinhibit urine and relieve stranguria. It is difficult to be identified owing to its various macroscopic feature and unknown characteristic compounds. Thus, total of 24 Chuanmutong samples and 7 related herbs including four manshurian aristolochia stem (Aristolochiae Manshuriensis Caulis, Guanmutong) and three akebia stem (Akebiae Caulis, Mutong) samples were collected and analyzed in the range of 4 000 - 400 cm⁻¹ by Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) and two-dimensional infrared correlation spectroscopy (2D-FTIR) techniques. The FTIR spectra of 24 Chuanmutong samples are consistent in the spectrum profiles, position and intensity of characteristic peaks. 20 of the 24 Chuanmutong samples were randomly selected as calibration samples to calculate and simulate mean spectrum. This mean spectrum is named as FTIR fingerprint of Chuanmutong with characteristic peaks at 3 412, 2 932, 1 739, 1 639, 1 509, 1 456, 1 426, 1 376, 1 332, 1 261, 1 159, 1 035, 897 ,609 cm⁻¹. Meanwhile, the limited level (Mean-3σ=0.992 6) to identify true or false Chuanmutong by correlation coefficient of FTIR spectra was calculated based on the 20 Chuanmutong calibration samples. Then, the rest 4 Chuanmutong, 4 Guanmutong and 3 Mutong samples were used as validation samples to evaluate the identification efficacy. The result shows that the FTIR spectra of 4 Chuanmutong validation samples were similar to the fingerprint. Their correlation coefficients of FTIR spectra were over the limited level and accepted as Chuanmutong. However, the spectra of Guanmutong and Mutong were significantly different from Chuanmutong fingerprint. The correlation coefficients of Guanmutong (0.902 1-0.940 4, n=4) and Mutong (0.954 9-0.978 9, n=3) FTIR spectra were less than the limited level and rejected from Chuanmutong. Furthermore, the number, position and intensity of auto-peaks on the 2D-FTIR were drastically different among the three herbs. It is concluded that the developed FTIR fingerprinting can be rapidly and accurately identify Chuanmutong and differentiate from related herbs.

[Relationship between nitric oxide in cervical microenvironment and different HPV types and effect on cervical cancer cells].

OBJECTIVE: To study the relationship between nitric oxide within cervical microenvironment and different HPV types as well as the effect of sodium nitroprusside (SNP), a nitric oxide donor, on the proliferation and apoptosis of cervical cancer cell lines. METHODS: HPV typing test was assessed from 115 women by using high-risk HPV (HR-HPV) 21 typing test and the release of cervical nitric oxide (NO) was assessed as nitrate, nitrite in cervical fluid. Cervical NO was then compared between women showing different HPV types. Proliferation of Caski and HeLa cervical cells was determined by methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium (MTT) assay, cell apoptosis was detected by flow cytometry after 24 hours treated by different final concentration of SNP (0.125, 0.25, 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0 mmol/L, respectively). The expressions of HPV E6, E7 gene mRNA and p53 protein were detected by SYBR Green I quantitative real-time PCR and western blot. RESULTS: (1) The cervical NO release of women with HR-HPV was higher compared to that in HPV negative women [(47.6±1.4) µmol/L vs (22.8±0.3) µmol/L; P<0.05]; but there was no statistical difference between low-risk HPV (LR-HPV) group [(24.1±1.2) µmol/L] and control group (P>0.05). (2) After 24 hours treated by different final concentration of SNP, the results shown that SNP could inhibited the proliferation and increased apoptosis rate in Caski and HeLa cells, in which the concentration of SNP≥1.0 mmol/L, there were significantly different (P<0.05), while when SNP≥2.0 mmol/L, the proliferation of cells inhibited seriously. Treated by SNP (1.0 mmol/L) 24 hours, the expressions of HPV18 E6, E7 mRNA in HeLa cells were reduced from 27.362±0.191, 22.962±0.053 to 19.181±0.360, 17.571±0.010 and the protein expression of p53 increased from 1.17±0.03 to 0.23±0.05, there were statistically significant differences between adding SNP group and the control group (P<0.05); but there were no statistically significant differences in HPV16 E6, E7 mRNA and that of p53 in Caski cells (P>0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The presence of HR-HPV is associated with an increased release of NO in the human uterine cervix; NO could inhibit the growth and proliferation and enhance the apoptosis of cervical cancer cells, inhibit the expression of HPV18 E6, E7 mRNA in HeLa cells and activate the expression of p53 protein, the mechanism may be due to higher sensitivity of HeLa cells (cervical adenocarcinoma cell) to SNP. The increasing release of NO may play a role in regulating the elimination of HPV in cervical microenvironment, which is a part of mucous membrane immunity.