RID serve as a more appropriate measure than phenol sulfuric acid method for natural water-soluble polysaccharides quantification.

With structural diversity of water-soluble polysaccharides, their precise quantitative analysis by phenol­sulfuric acid method becomes more difficult and challenging. In this study, the quantification analysis of dextran and glucose in phenol sulfuric acid method was compared in this paper. When the concentration is below 90 µg/mL, the quantification of glucose is close to theoretical value, however, glucose derivatives have significantly different absorption. Later, quantitative factors of water-soluble polysaccharide in RID measurement were investigated. The optimum temperature was 40 °C and linear range was 0.3125-10.0 mg/mL in RID for dextrans (1.0-500 kDa) and glucose derivatives. Method validation studies of the RID method were further performed and compared to conventional phenol sulfuric acid method, which demonstrated that RID measurement is more reliable and satisfactory method. The intervention of water-soluble impurity in RID response should be well control below 6% (w/w). By comparison, the RID measurement could well alleviate drawbacks in phenol­sulfuric acid method.

Application of Fourier transform near-infrared spectroscopy combined with GC in rapid and simultaneous determination of essential components in Amomum villosum.

A method is described using rapid and sensitive Fourier transform near-infrared spectroscopy combined with Gas Chromatograpy internal standard method detection for the simultaneous identification and determination of three bioactive compounds in Amomum villosum samples. Partial least squares regression is selected as the analysis type and multiplicative scatter correction, second derivative, and SNV were adopted for the spectral pretreatment. The correlation coefficients (R) of the calibration models were above 0.95 and the root mean square error of predictions were under 0.8. The developed models were applied to unknown samples with satisfantory results. The established method was validated and can be applied to the intrinsic quality control of Amomum villosum.

Development of a comprehensive quality control method for the quantitative analysis of volatiles and lignans in Magnolia biondii Pamp. by near infrared spectroscopy.

The quality of drug is vital to its curative effect, thus it is important to develop a comprehensive quality control method for commonly used drugs. In this study, we developed a Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry separation method for the qualitative and quantitative analysis of volatiles, together with a High-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry separation method for lignans in Magnolia biondii Pamp.. 79 volatiles and 11 lignans were identified via comparing their chromatographic behavior and mass spectra data with those in the literature. The methods were then used to determine the contents of volatiles (1, 8-cineole, d-Limonene, α-terpineol, linalool, L-camphor brain and bornyl acetate) and lignans (epieudesmin, magnolin, epi-magnolin A and fargesin) in Magnolia biondii Pamp.. Subsequently, 13 qualitative models including volatiles (1, 8-cineole, d-Limonene, α-terpineol, linalool, L-camphor brain and bornyl acetate), water-soluble extractive, lignans (pinoresinol dimethyl ether, magnolin, epi-magnolin A and fargesin) and moisture were developed by Near-Infrared Spectroscopy based on partial least square regression herein. The reference values were obtained by High-performance liquid chromatography, Gas chromatography and etc., while the predicted values were attained from the NIR spectrum. Compared with the traditional detection methods, NIR technique methodology significantly improved the ability to evaluate the quality of Magnolia biondii Pamp., which had the advantages of convenience, celerity, highly efficiency, low cost, no harm to samples, no reagent consumption, and no pollution to the environment. Moreover, the systematic analysis method combined pharmaceutical analysis with pharmacochemistry was proposed to prepare volatiles, water-soluble extractive and lignans parts from the same sample. This way could extract more index components to be beneficial in the quality control of Magnolia biondii Pamp. roundly.

Study on the Pharmacognosy of S. Spatuliforius.

Sauropus spatulifolius Beille (S. spatulifolius) is the dried plant of the genus Sauropus, and belongs to the family Euphorbiaceae. To study the pharmacognosy of Sauropus spatulifolius Beille (S. spatulifolius). A preliminary analysis in terms of primal identification, macroscopic identification and chemistry was carried out on S. spatulifolius. The transverse section of S. spatulifolius roots and stem showed that the cambium was obvious and the xylem was well developed; the transverse section of roots shows that the phloem appeared narrow and the vascular bundle was collateral. The transverse section of the stem showed occasional prickling of the periderm. The transverse section of the leaves showed that the lower epidermal cells are covered by non-glandular hairs; the palisade cells and spongy tissues were clearly distinguished; the stomatic type of the lower epidermis was paracytic, with stomatal index of 31.76%. Fiber, scalariform vessels and spiral vessels, pollen grains and so on were commonly seen in the powder. Through chemical identification, polysaccharides, glycosides, alkaloids and other components were identified in the plant. TLC result shows that T-test result was 0.018, indicating significant difference. The pharmacognostic features of S. spatulifolius are obvious, providing reference for further utilization and development of this plant.

Pharmacognostical study of Desmodium caudatum.

Desmodium caudatum (Thunb.) DC, is an ever-green plant widely used in the central and southern China with great economic value for their medical values on fever, dysentery, gastroenteritis, rectal prolapse, snake bites, mastitis, and boils carbuncle. Despite its extensive uses as a traditional Chinese medicine, no systematic research on the identification of Desmodium caudatum has been reported. In this study, traditional pharmacognostical identification including the botanical origin and morphological characters, medicinal material characters, microscopic characters, physicochemical parameters determination and phytochemical screening, and DNA barcoding analysis were employed to establish an accurate and effective identification system of Desmodium caudatum. In addition, the molecular pharmacognosy study was adopted in order to identify the samples more accurately. The ITS loci of the nuclear genome and psbA-trnH loci of the chloroplast genome were selected and evaluated, which were the most variable loci. The study will be beneficial to the development of the quality standard and the identification of species.

Pharmacognostical studies of Premna microphylla

Abstract Various traditional systems of medicine enlightened the importance of Premna microphylla Turcz., Lamiaceae, medicinally. The present study was carried out to provide a scientific basis of the identification and the authenticity of P. microphylla with the help of pharmacognostical parameters, which is not done before. Roots, stems, and leaves of P. microphylla were collected for pharmacognostical studies involving macros, microscopic evaluation, physicochemical parameters analysis like fluorescence analysis and thin layer chromatography, in addition with DNA barcodes of internal transcribed spacer and psbA-trnH regions. Transverse section of root indicated the presence of stone cell bands. Transverse section of stem showed the presence of stone cells and vessels. Transverse section of leaf midrib revealed the presence of shaft type of porosity. Microscopic studies of powder revealed the presence of cork cells, fibers, vessels, nonglandular hairs, stone cells and glandular scale cells. Thin layer chromatography of the extract revealed the presence of oleanolic acid in P. microphylla with specific R f values. Identification through DNA barcode showed the sequence of internal transcribed spacer region was novel while the sequence of psbA-trnH region displayed no differences from known sequence. The observations confirmed that P. microphylla has an obvious pharmacognostical characteristics, which will be useful toward providing a reliable basis for identification, purity, quality and classification of the plant.

Prevention of Frey Syndrome With Temporal Fascia Flap in Parotidectomy.

The objective of this study was to evaluate a total parotidectomy performed through a face-lift incision integrated with a temporal fascia flap. We have accomplished a group of 40 cases of total parotidectomy from July 2008 to May 2013. Twenty-two cases accepted a modified performance which combined rhytidectomy incision with temporal fascia flap. The other 18 cases were fulfilled by Blair incision and no reconstruction of parotid bed as control. The patients were followed up every 6 months. In the interviews, the assessment of the operation from patients was recorded. The cosmetic gratification, presence or absence of gustatory flushing or sweating, and functional reversion of facial nerve and great auricular nerve were surveyed by 3 investigators. The criteria that integrated the subjective with objective items were stipulated for evaluation. Gustatory sweating had been identified in 0% and 44% of patients of the testing and control group, respectively. The average scale of the experimental and control group postoperatively was 7.89 and 5.93 individually. The difference of the average scale between testing and control group presented statistical significance. The author's technique is either aesthetically satisfying or efficacious to prevention of gustatory sweating in total parotidectomy.

[Quantitative model for patchouli alcohol in Pogostemon cablin by near-infrared spectroscopy].

OBJECTIVE: To establish a near-infrared spectroscopy quantitative model for rapid determination of the patchouli alcohol content in Pogostemon cablin. METHOD: The gas chromatography was adopted for determining the content of patchouli alcohol content in 102 batches of P. cablin samples. Their near-infrared spectrograms were collected and preprocessed by standard normal variate and the first derivative of Savitsky-Golay. The quantitative model of patchouli alcohol content was established by the partial least squares regression analysis. RESULT: According to the correction model established in this study, the root-mean-square error of calibration, the root-mean-square error of prediction and the root-mean-square error of cross-validation of the calibration model for Patchouli alcohol were 0.991 10, 0.012 9, 0.012 8 and 0.033 15, respectively. CONCLUSION: The near-infrared spectroscopy quantitative model established in this study is stable, accurate and reliable for the rapid determination of the content of patchouli alcohol in P. cablin.

[Phylogeny relationship and molecular identification of ten Huperzia species (Huperziaceae) based on matK gene sequences].

OBJECTIVE: To study the phylogeny relationship and molecular identification of 10 species from Huperzia (Huperziaceae) based on matK gene sequences data. METHOD: Total DNA of nine species from Huperzia was extracted; matK gene sequence was amplified by PCR. PCR product was directly sequenced after purification. RESULT: The chloroplast matK gene nucleotide sequences from 9 species of Huperzia species were sequenced. The matK gene nucleotide sequences length was 1 589 bp. Analysis with Huperzia lucidula matK gene nucleotide sequences (download from GenBank) and taking Lycopodiella cernua as outgroup, Maximum Parsimony, Neighbor-Joining analyses and genetic distances were conducted using MEGA 3.1 software. 35 variable sites and 35 parsimony informative sites have been found. Pairwise genetic distances among 10 species of Huperzia was 1.59% - 0.25%. CONCLUSION: The results were consistent with the taxonomy in morphological of Huperzia. But H. longipetiolata and H. serrata were resolved into in different clade. There are 19 different sites of matK gene sequences between H. longipetiolata and H. serrata, the genetic distances is 0.121%. It is suggested H. longipetiolata should be as an independent species.

Molecular identification of twelve medicinal plants of Huperziaceae.

Twelve species of Huperziaceae have been identified for resolving the resource depletion of Huperziaceae plants. The chloroplast genes rbcL, rpL16, and psbA-trnH intergenic spacers were used in this study. Identification of different species of Huperziaceae is possible by analyzing the information obtained from rbcL, rpL16, and psbA-trnH intergenic spacer sequences. The result also can provide information with regard to the use of plant tissue culture and cuttage propagation to solve the problem of the resource depletion of these plants.