Phytochemical and biological investigations of Amaryllidaceae alkaloids: a review.

Amaryllidaceae is a family that includes 75 genera and about 1100 species, which have a long history of medicinal use. Many plants have been proven to possess efficacy for neurological injury and inflammatory conditions. This article summarizes 357 Amaryllidaceae alkaloids, and cites 166 174 references over the last three decades. These alkaloids are classified into 14 skeleton types, and their abundant sources are also included. Modern pharmacology studies demonstrate that alkaloids that exclusively occur in Amaryllidaceae plant possess wide-ranging pharmacological actions, especially effects on the central nervous system, as well as antitumor, antimicrobial, and anti-inflammatory activities. Effective monomeric compounds from Amaryllidaceae screened for pharmacological activity in vivo and in vitro are also summarized.

Anti-osteoporosis effect of Epimedium via an estrogen-like mechanism based on a system-level approach.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Epimedium is a popular traditional herbal medicine worldwide that has long been used to relieve osteoporosis. The estrogenic properties of the herb are conferred by several phytoestrogens, such as flavonoids, lignans, and steroids. However, the poor understanding on the estrogen-like mechanism of Epimedium at the molecular and system levels limits the applications of this herb in osteoporosis treatment. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this study, systems pharmacology was established to investigate the relationship between Epimedium and estrogen against osteoporosis by integrating active component screening, drug-likeness evaluation, herb feature mapping, target prediction and validation, and network analysis. RESULTS: A total of 77 active components that possessed similar structural features to estrogen as determined using herb feature mapping were selected from Epimedium by oral bioavailability prediction and drug-likeness evaluation. Twenty three osteoporosis-related targets were obtained from the active components of Epimedium as potential targets, 11 of which were common targets with estrogen. All osteoporosis-related targets were further mapped to compound-target and target-pathway networks. Results displayed that Epimedium can exert anti-osteoporosis effects by directly regulating the 11 estrogen-related targets and a set of target proteins on five estrogen-related pathways. CONCLUSION: This study explained the estrogen-like mechanism of Epimedium in preventing and treating osteoporosis, and provided a new standpoint for exploring the traditional herbal medicine against osteoporosis.

Systems pharmacology-based drug discovery for marine resources: an example using sea cucumber (Holothurians).

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Sea cucumber, a kind of marine animal, have long been utilized as tonic and traditional remedies in the Middle East and Asia because of its effectiveness against hypertension, asthma, rheumatism, cuts and burns, impotence, and constipation. In this study, an overall study performed on sea cucumber was used as an example to show drug discovery from marine resource by using systems pharmacology model. The value of marine natural resources has been extensively considered because these resources can be potentially used to treat and prevent human diseases. However, the discovery of drugs from oceans is difficult, because of complex environments in terms of composition and active mechanisms. Thus, a comprehensive systems approach which could discover active constituents and their targets from marine resource, understand the biological basis for their pharmacological properties is necessary. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this study, a feasible pharmacological model based on systems pharmacology was established to investigate marine medicine by incorporating active compound screening, target identification, and network and pathway analysis. RESULTS: As a result, 106 candidate components of sea cucumber and 26 potential targets were identified. Furthermore, the functions of sea cucumber in health improvement and disease treatment were elucidated in a holistic way based on the established compound-target and target-disease networks, and incorporated pathways. CONCLUSIONS: This study established a novel strategy that could be used to explore specific active mechanisms and discover new drugs from marine sources.

Removal of cadmium(II) from aqueous solutions by chemically modified maize straw.

A new regenerable adsorbent was successfully prepared by modifying maize straw (MS) with succinic anhydride in xylene. The succinylated-maize straw (S-MS) was characterized by FTIR, solid-state MAS (13)C NMR spectroscopy, SEM-EDX and point of zero charge analysis. NaS-MS was successfully obtained after deprotonating the carboxylic acid groups of S-MS by Na2CO3 solution. Batch experiments were carried out with NaS-MS for the removal of Cd(II). The effects of pH, adsorbent dosage, contact time, initial concentration and temperature were investigated. The experimental data were best described by a pseudo-second-order kinetics and Langmuir adsorption models. Thermodynamic parameters (ΔG, ΔH, and ΔS) were also calculated from data obtained from experiments performed to study the effect of temperatures. NaS-MS could be regenerated at least five times in saturated NaCl solution without any loss. Furthermore, ∼97% of adsorbed Cd(II) ions could be recovered as the metal oxide. Finally, the adsorption mechanism of NaS-MS was discussed.

[Development of an automatic vacuum liquid chromatographic device and its application in the separation of the components from Schisandra chinensis (Turz) Baill].

In order to meet the needs of efficient purification of products from natural resources, this paper developed an automatic vacuum liquid chromatographic device (AUTO-VLC) and applied it to the component separation of petroleum ether extracts of Schisandra chinensis (Turcz) Baill. The device was comprised of a solvent system, a 10-position distribution valve, a 3-position changes valve, dynamic axis compress chromatographic columns with three diameters, and a 10-position fraction valve. The programmable logic controller (PLC) S7- 200 was adopted to realize the automatic control and monitoring of the mobile phase changing, column selection, separation time setting and fraction collection. The separation results showed that six fractions (S1-S6) of different chemical components from 100 g Schisandra chinensis (Turcz) Baill. petroleum ether phase were obtained by the AUTO-VLC with 150 mm diameter dynamic axis compress chromatographic column. A new method used for the VLC separation parameters screened by using multiple development TLC was developed and confirmed. The initial mobile phase of AUTO-VLC was selected by taking Rf of all the target compounds ranging from 0 to 0.45 for fist development on the TLC; gradient elution ratio was selected according to k value (the slope of the linear function of Rf value and development times on the TLC) and the resolution of target compounds; elution times (n) were calculated by the formula n ≈ ΔRf/k. A total of four compounds with the purity more than 85% and 13 other components were separated from S5 under the selected conditions for only 17 h. Therefore, the development of the automatic VLC and its method are significant to the automatic and systematic separation of traditional Chinese medicines.

[Establishment of the mathematical model for the inhibition on alpha-glycosidase by chemical compositions from Terminalia chebula Retz. based on the liquid chromatographic information].

The extracts from Chinese herbs are complex compounds with uncertain mechanism, which affects the target with all ingredients. Therefore, it is of great importance to evaluate the bioactivity of these extracts. In this study, 29 samples which had continuous variation of constituents were obtained from the alcohol extract of Terminalia chebula Retz. by a Sephadex LH-20 size exclusion chromatographic column. After detecting the chromatographic information of detection wavelength at 254 nm and the activity information of these samples, the mathematical relationship equation was established to determine the impact on the active components. Stepwise regression method was used to research the relationship between the peak areas (V(i), independent variables) of the compositions in the samples and activities (according to the enzyme inhibition (W), dependent variables). The results showed that there were 55 chromatographic peaks in the samples and the mathematical relationship between the compositions of Terminalia chebula Retz. extract (V(i), i = 1, 2, ..., 55) and activities was certain. The expression was: W = V(7) x (-0.034 +/- 0.013) + V18 x (-0.155 +/- 0.051) + V29 x (-0.142 +/- 0.028) + V4 x (0.079 +/- 0.020) + V11 x (0.074 +/- 0 028) + V36 x (-0.117 +/- 0.053) + 85.669 +/- 4.476, multiple correlation coefficient R = 0.854, significance level (Sig. F change) = 0.037. The steadiness of model was favorable with new digital information. The compounds corresponding to 18th, 29th, 36th, 4th, 11th and 7th peaks were the main active compounds. The method can be also applied to the relationship between a wide variety of components of traditional Chinese medicine resources and different kinds of activities. It is significant to the research and development of traditional Chinese medicine.