Combined systematic pharmacology and urine metabonomics to study the therapeutic mechanism of type 2 diabetic treated with the herbal pair of Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge and Pueraria montana var. lobata (Willd.) Sanjappa & Pradeep.

BACKGROUND: The herbal pair of Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge and Pueraria montana var. lobata (Willd.) Sanjappa & Pradeep (DG) is commonly used in the treatment of type 2 diabetes (T2DM) in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). The drug pair DG was designed by Dr. Zhu chenyu to improve the treatment of T2DM. AIM: This study combined with systematic pharmacology and urine metabonomics to explore the mechanism of DG in the treatment of T2DM. METHODS: The therapeutic effect of DG on T2DM was evaluated by fasting blood glucose (FBG) and biochemical indexes. Systematic pharmacology was used to screen the active components and targets that may be related to DG. Metabonomics was established to find urinary metabolites and pathways that may be induced by DG. Finally, integrate the results of these two parts for mutual verification. RESULTS: FBG and biochemical indexes showed that DG could reduce FBG and adjust the related biochemical indexes. Metabolomics analysis indicated that 39 metabolites were related to DG for T2DM treatment. In addition, systematic pharmacology showed compounds and potential targets which were associated with DG. Finally, 12 promising targets were selected as targets for T2DM therapy by integrating the results. CONCLUSION: The combination of metabonomics and systematic pharmacology based on LC-MS is feasible and effective, which provides strong support for exploring the effective components and pharmacological mechanism of TCM.

Natural Products for the Treatment of Drug Addiction: Narrative Review.

Drug addiction is considered a chronic disorder affecting the individual's life, his/her family and society. Up till now the treatment of drug addiction is considered a problematic issue. Synthetic drugs available for the treatment of drug addiction are few, of limited efficacy and associated with serious side effects. Therefore, there is a continuous search for better therapeutic agents for drug addiction. Natural products represent a promising source for drug addiction treatment. This review summaries drug addiction definition, its mechanism of action, its types, its diagnosis, factors affecting its development and different available approaches for its treatment especially the use of natural products. Six plants were discussed thoroughly in this review, including, Tabernanthe iboga Baill., Mitragyna speciosa Korth., Pueraria montana var. lobata (Willd.) Sanjappa & Pradeep, Hypericum perforatum L., Panax ginseng C.A. Mey., and Withania somnifera (L.) Dunal.

A new isoflavone glycoside from flowers of Pueraria Montana var. lobata (Willd.) Sanjappa & Pradeep.

A new isoflavone glycoside, named 3'-hydroxytectorigenin-7-O-ß-D-xylosyl-(1→6)-ß-D-glucopyranoside (1) was isolated from the flowers of Pueraria montana var. lobata (Willd.) Sanjappa & Pradeep. The structure of compound 1 was characterised by HR-ESI-MS and NMR spectroscopic methods. In radical scavenging activity test using 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), compound 1 showed moderate activity with IC50 value of 42 ± 4.2 µg/mL.

Difference Analysis of Chemical Constituents in Different Varieties of Puerariae Flos by UPLC-Q-TOF-MS / 中国实验方剂学杂志

Objective:To compare the chemical constituents of Puerariae Flos from three different varieties of <italic>Pueraria montana</italic> var. <italic>lobata</italic>， <italic>P. montana</italic> var. <italic>thomsonii</italic> and <italic>P</italic>. <italic>montana</italic> var<italic>. montana</italic>. Method:Ultra-performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole-time-of-flight mass spectrometry （UPLC-Q-TOF-MS） was used with the mobile phase of 0.1% formic acid aqueous solution （A）-acetonitrile （B） for gradient elution （0-20 min， 10%-30%B； 20-30 min， 30%-55%B； 30-35 min， 55%-95%B； 35-37 min， 95%B； 37-40 min， 95%-10%B）， the flow rate was 0.25 mL·min^-1. Electrospray ionization （ESI） was used to scan and collect MS data in positive and negative ion modes with scanning range of <italic>m</italic>/<italic>z</italic> 50-1 500. The chemical components from different sources of Puerariae Flos were identified in combination with the chemical composition database and literature information. After the obtained data were normalized by MarkerView^TM 1.2.1， they were imported into SICMA-P 14.1 software for principal component analysis （PCA） and orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis （OPLS-DA） to select the main differentiated components among the three different varieties. Result:A total of 35 compounds were identified from three different varieties of Puerariae Flos， including 22 isoflavones， 6 flavonoids and 7 saponins. The flowers of <italic>P</italic>. <italic>lobata</italic>， <italic>P. montana</italic> var. <italic>thomsonii</italic> and <italic>P</italic>. <italic>montana</italic> var<italic>. montana</italic> contained 32， 35， 33 compounds， respectively. And 18 differential compounds were screened under the positive and negative ion modes， including kakkalide， tectoridin， 6″-<italic>O</italic>-xylosyl-tectoridin， 4'-methyltectorigenin-7-glucoside， glycitin， 6″-<italic>O</italic>-xylosyl-glycitin， irisolidone， kaikasaponin Ⅲ， 6″-<italic>O</italic>-malonylglycitin， kakkalidone， tectorigenin， rutin， soyasaponin BB， vitexin， biochanin A， genistin， kakkatin， azukisaponin Ⅱ. Conclusion:This research is the first to systematically study the chemical constituents of the flower of <italic>P</italic>. <italic>montana</italic> var<italic>. montana</italic>， although the flower of <italic>P</italic>. <italic>montana</italic> var<italic>. montana</italic> is used as adulterants， it has high contents of tectoridin and 6″-<italic>O</italic>-xylosyl-tectoridin， which has great potential for development. The efficacy components such as kakkalide and tectoridin in Puerariae Flos from the three sources of varieties are obviously different， and it is necessary to carefully consider the application of these three varieties as Puerariae Flos.

Pueraria montana var. lobata root extract inhibits photoaging on skin through Nrf2 pathway.

Pueraria montana var. lobata is a bioactive substance, in possession of a variety of beneficial health effects, which has long been extensively used as a traditional medication for the treatment of fever, acute dysentery, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases in North-East Asian countries. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the cytoprotective activity of Pueraria montana var. lobata ethanol extract (PLE) for ultraviolet B (UVB) induced oxidative stress in human dermal fibroblasts (HDF). It was hypothesized that PLE treatment (25-100 µg/mL) would reduce intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels as well as increase collagen production in UVB-irradiated HDF. The results confirmed this theory, with collagen production increasing in the PLE treatment group in a dose-dependent manner. In addition, regulators of cellular ROS accumulation, including HO-1 and NOQ-1, were activated by Nrf2, which was mediated by PLE. Hence, intracellular levels of ROS were also reduced in the PLE treatment group in a dose-dependent manner. In conclusion, PLE increases collagen production and maintains hyaluronic acid (HA) levels in human dermal fibroblasts exposed to UVB-irradiation, thereby inhibiting photoaging.

Synergistic effect of Korean red ginseng and Pueraria montana var. lobata against trimethyltin-induced cognitive impairment.

Many edible plant extracts exhibit biological activities. For example, the ethanol extract of Pueraria montana var. lobata (P. montana) inhibits acetylcholinesterase (AChE), and red ginseng is well known for promoting health. In this study the authors investigated the synergistic effect of P. montana and red ginseng extracts on AChE activity in vitro and in mouse brain tissues and trimethyltin (TMT)-induced cognitive impairment in a mouse model of TMT-induced neurodegeneration. A diet containing a mixture of P. montana and red ginseng extracts reversed learning and memory impairments in Y-maze and passive avoidance behavioral tests. In addition, the mixture inhibited AChE activity and lipid peroxidation synergistically.

De novo transcriptome assembly of Pueraria montana var. lobata and Neustanthus phaseoloides for the development of eSSR and SNP markers: narrowing the US origin(s) of the invasive kudzu.

BACKGROUND: Kudzu, Pueraria montana var. lobata, is a woody vine native to Southeast Asia that has been introduced globally for cattle forage and erosion control. The vine is highly invasive in its introduced areas, including the southeastern US. Modern molecular marker resources are limited for the species, despite its importance. Transcriptomes for P. montana var. lobata and a second phaseoloid legume taxon previously ascribed to genus Pueraria, Neustanthus phaseoloides, were generated and mined for microsatellites and single nucleotide polymorphisms. RESULTS: Roche 454 sequencing of P. montana var. lobata and N. phaseoloides transcriptomes produced read numbers ranging from ~ 280,000 to ~ 420,000. Trinity assemblies produced an average of 17,491 contigs with mean lengths ranging from 639 bp to 994 bp. Transcriptome completeness, according to BUSCO, ranged between 64 and 77%. After vetting for primer design, there were 1646 expressed simple sequence repeats (eSSRs) identified in P. montana var. lobata and 1459 in N. phaseoloides. From these eSSRs, 17 identical primer pairs, representing inter-generic phaseoloid eSSRs, were created. Additionally, 13 primer pairs specific to P. montana var. lobata were also created. From these 30 primer pairs, a final set of seven primer pairs were used on 68 individuals of P. montana var. lobata for characterization across the US, China, and Japan. The populations exhibited from 20 to 43 alleles across the seven loci. We also conducted pairwise tests for high-confidence SNP discovery from the kudzu transcriptomes we sequenced and two previously sequenced P. montana var. lobata transcriptomes. Pairwise comparisons between P. montana var. lobata ranged from 358 to 24,475 SNPs, while comparisons between P. montana var. lobata and N. phaseoloides ranged from 5185 to 30,143 SNPs. CONCLUSIONS: The discovered molecular markers for kudzu provide a starting point for comparative genetic studies within phaseoloid legumes. This study both adds to the current genetic resources and presents the first available genomic resources for the invasive kudzu vine. Additionally, this study is the first to provide molecular evidence to support the hypothesis of Japan as a source of US kudzu and begins to narrow the origin of US kudzu to the central Japanese island of Honshu.

Heterogeneity of clonal patterns among patches of kudzu, Pueraria montana var. lobata, an invasive plant.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Viny species are among the most serious invasive plants, and better knowledge of how vines grow to dominate landscapes is needed. Patches may contain a single genotype (i.e. genet), a competitively dominant genet or many independent but interacting genets, yet the clonal structure of vining species is often not apparent. Molecular markers can discriminate among the genetic identities of entwined vines to reveal the number and spatial distribution of genets. This study investigated how genets are spatially distributed within and among discrete patches of the invasive vine kudzu, Pueraria montana var. lobata, in the United States. It was expected that ramets of genets would be spatially clustered within patches, and that an increase in the number of genets within a patch would be associated with a decrease in the average size of each genet. METHODS: Six discrete kudzu patches were sampled across 2 years, and 1257 samples were genotyped at 21 polymorphic allozyme loci. Variation in genotypic and genetic diversity among patches was quantified and patterns of genet interdigitation were analysed. KEY RESULTS: Substantial genotypic and genetic variation occurred within and among patches. As few as ten overlapping genets spanned up to 68 m(2) in one patch, while >90 % of samples were genetically unique in another patch. Genotypic diversity within patches increased as mean clone size decreased, although spatially widespread genets did not preclude interdigitation. Eight genets were shared across ≥2 patches, suggesting that vegetative dispersal can occur among patches. CONCLUSIONS: Genetically unique kudzu vines are highly interdigitated. Multiple vegetative propagules have become established in spatially discrete patches, probably through the movement of highway construction or maintenance machinery. The results suggest that common methods for controlling invasive vines (e.g. mowing) may inadvertently increase genotypic diversity. Thus, understanding vine architecture and growth has practical implications.