A review on ethnopharmacology, phytochemistry, pharmacology and potential uses of Portulaca oleracea L.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Portulaca oleracea L. (PO), popularly known as purslane, has been documented in ethnopharmacology in various countries and regions. Traditional application records indicated that PO might be used extensively to treat the common cold, dysentery, urinary tract infections, coughing, eye infections, skin problems, gynecological diseases, and pediatric illnesses. AIM OF THE REVIEW: This paper includes a systematic review of the traditional usage, phytochemicals, pharmacological activity, and potential uses of PO to provide an overview of the research for further exploitation of PO resources. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This article uses "Portulaca oleracea L." and "purslane" as the keywords and collects relevant information on PO from different databases, including PubMed, Web of Science, Springer, Science Direct, ACS, Wiley, CNKI, Baidu Scholar, Google Scholar, and ancient meteria medica. RESULTS: PO is a member of the Portulacaceae family and is grown worldwide. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that purslane has the effect of improving eyesight, eliminating evil qi, quenching thirst, purgation, diuresis, hemostasis, regulating qi, promoting hair growth, detoxifying, and avoiding epidemic qi. Recent phytochemical investigations have shown that PO is a rich source of flavonoids, homoisoflavonoids, alkaloids, organic acids, esters, lignans, terpenoids, catecholamines, sterols, and cerebrosides. The purslane extracts or compounds have exhibited numerous biological activities such as anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory, antimicrobial, antiviral, antioxidant, anticancer, renoprotective, hepatoprotective, gastroprotective, metabolic, muscle relaxant, anti-asthmatic and anti-osteoporosis properties. The significant omega-3 fatty acids, vital amino acids, minerals, and vitamins found in purslane also provide nutritional benefits. Purslane as a food/feed additive in the food industry and animal husbandry has caused concern. Its global wide distribution and tolerance to abiotic stress characteristics make it in the future sustainable development of agriculture a certain position. CONCLUSIONS: Based on traditional usage, phytochemicals, and pharmacological activity, PO is a potential medicinal and edible plant with diverse pharmacological effects. Due to purslane's various advantages, it may have vast application potential in the food and pharmaceutical industries and animal husbandry.

Traditional Chinese Medicine in Osteoporosis Intervention and the Related Regulatory Mechanism of Gut Microbiome.

The gut microbiome (GM) has become a crucial factor that can affect the progression of osteoporosis. A number of studies have demonstrated the impact of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) on GM and bone metabolism. In this review, we summarize the potential mechanisms of the relationship between osteoporosis and GM disorder and introduce several natural Chinese medicines that exert anti-osteoporosis effects by modulating the GM. It is underlined that, through the provision of the microbial associated molecular pattern (MAMP), the GM causes inflammatory reactions and alterations in the Treg-Th17 balance and ultimately leads to changes in bone mass. Serotonin and many hormones, especially estrogen, may play a crucial role in the interaction of the GM with bone metabolism. Additionally, the GM may affect the absorption of specific nutrients in the intestine, particularly minerals like calcium, magnesium, and phosphorus. Several natural Chinese herbs, such as Sambucus Williamsii, Achyranthes bidentata Blume, Pleurotus ostreatus and Ganoderma lucidum mushrooms, Pueraria Lobata, and Agaricus blazei Murill have exhibited anti-osteoporosis effects through regulating the distribution and metabolism of the GM. These herbs may increase the abundance of Firmicutes, decrease the abundance of Bacteroides, promote the GM to produce more SCFAs, modulate the immune response caused by harmful bacteria, and increase the proportion of Treg-Th17 to indirectly affect bone metabolism. Moreover, gut-derived 5-HT is an important target for TCM to prevent osteoporosis via the gut-bone axis. Puerarin could prevent osteoporosis by improving intestinal mucosal integrity and decrease systemic inflammation caused by estrogen deficiency.

How does the fiscal pressure of local governments affect China's PM2.5 emissions?

Affected by the epidemic and other factors, the global economy is in a downturn, and countries around the world are under unprecedented debt pressure. How will this affect environmental protection? Taking China as an example, this paper empirically studies the impact of changes in local government behavior on urban air quality under fiscal pressure. This paper uses the generalized method of moments (GMM) to find that fiscal pressure has significantly reduced PM2.5 emissions, with a unit increase in fiscal pressure will increase PM2.5 by about 2%. The mechanism verification shows that three channels affect PM2.5 emissions: (1) fiscal pressure has prompted local governments to relax the supervision of existing pollution-intensive enterprises. (2) Local governments reduce environmental regulations for attracting more pollution-intensive enterprises. (3) Local governments tend to reduce environmental protection investment to save fiscal expenses. The paper's conclusions provide new policy ideas for promoting environmental protection in China, as well as served as a case for analyzing current changes in environmental protection in other countries.

Traditional Chinese Medicine as a Promising Strategy for the Treatment of Alzheimer's Disease Complicated With Osteoporosis.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) and osteoporosis (OP) are progressive degenerative diseases caused by multiple factors, placing a huge burden on the world. Much evidence indicates that OP is a common complication in AD patients. In addition, there is also evidence to show that patients with OP have a higher risk of AD than those without OP. This suggests that the association between the two diseases may be due to a pathophysiological link rather than one disease causing the other. Several in vitro and in vivo studies have also proved their common pathogenesis. Based on the theory of traditional Chinese medicine, some classic and specific natural Chinese medicines are widely used to effectively treat AD and OP. Current evidence also shows that these treatments can ameliorate both brain damage and bone metabolism disorder and further alleviate AD complicated with OP. These valuable therapies might provide effective and safe alternatives to major pharmacological strategies.

[Effects of astragaloside â £ on inflammatory response and percentage of peripheral blood Th17 cells in mice with ulcerative colitis].

This study aimed to investigate the anti-inflammatory effect of astragaloside Ⅳ in mice with ulcerative colitis(UC) and its effect on the percentage of peripheral blood T helper(Th17) cells. Following the establishment of UC mouse model with 2% sodium dextran sulfate(DSS), mice in the positive control group and low-and high-dose astragaloside Ⅳ groups were treated with corresponding drugs by gavage. Disease activity index(DAI) was calculated, and serum interleukin-17(IL-17), tumor necrosis factor-α(TNF-α), and transforming growth factor-ß(TGF-ß) levels were assayed by ELISA. The pathological changes in colon tissue were observed by HE staining, and Th17/regulatory T cells(Treg) ratio in the peripheral blood was determined by flow cytometry. Western blot was conducted for detecting the relative protein expression levels of forkhead box protein P3(Foxp3) and retinoic acid-related orphan nuclear receptor γT(ROR-γt). The findings demonstrated that in normal mice, the colonic structure was intact. The goblet cells were not reduced and the glands were neatly arranged, with no mucosal erosion, bleeding, or positive cell infiltration. In the model group, the colonic mucosal structure was seriously damaged, manifested as disordered arrangement or missing of glands, vascular dilatation, congestion, and massive inflammatory cell infiltration. The pathological injury of colon tissue was alleviated to varying degrees in drug treatment groups. Compared with the normal group, the model group exhibited elevated percentage of Th17 cells, increased IL-17 and TNF-α content, up-regulated relative ROR-γt protein expression, lowered TGF-ß, reduced percentage of Treg cells, and down-regulated relative Foxp3 protein expression. The comparison with the model group showed that DAI score, pathological score, percentage of Th17 cells, IL-17 and TNF-α content, and relative ROR-γt protein expression in the positive control group, low-dose astragaloside Ⅳ group, and high-dose astragaloside Ⅳ group were decreased, while TGF-ß content, percentage of Treg cells, and relative Foxp3 protein expression were increased. The DAI score, pathological score, percentage of Th17 cells, IL-17 and TNF-α content, and relative ROR-γt protein expression in the low-dose astragaloside Ⅳ group were higher than those in the positive control group, whereas the content of TGF-ß, percentage of Treg cells, and relative Foxp3 protein expression were lower. DAI score, pathological score, percentage of Th17 cells, IL-17 and TNF-α content, relative ROR-γt protein expression in the high-dose astragaloside Ⅳ group declined in contrast to those in the low-dose astragaloside Ⅳ group, while the TGF-ß content, percentage of Treg cells, and relative Foxp3 protein expression rose. There was no significant difference between the positive control group and the high-dose astragaloside Ⅳ group. Astragaloside Ⅳ is able to inhibit inflammatory response and diminish the percentage of Th17 cells in mice with UC.

Silencing the glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase gene in Saccharomyces cerevisiae results in more ethanol being produced and less glycerol.

Transcription of the gene coding for glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GPD1) was repressed in an industrial strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae using a silencing vector. A fusion fragment containing GPD1 and Kan MX genes was generated by overlap extension PCR, then, the vector, pYES2.0 GPD1/Kan MX, was constructed by inserting the fusion fragment into the S. cerevisiae plasmid, pYES2.0. pYES2.0 GPD1/Kan MX, was linearized by KpnI, transformed into S. cerevisiae using the PEG/LiAc/ssDNA method, and integrated into the S. cerevisiae chromosome. GPD1 silencing gave 20 % less glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase activity, 19 % lower glycerol production, and 9.7 % higher ethanol production compared with the original strain. These findings further the development of industrial S. cerevisiae strains with improved ethanol production and reduced glycerol content for the efficient production of bio-ethanol.

[Analysis of Acanthopanax senticosus harms for different parts using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy].

In the present paper, raw radix, stem and leaf and the total glycoside extract of them of Acanthopanax senticosus Harms were studied via the multi-steps IR macro-fingerprint method. The spectra of raw medicinal materials show that the spectra of radix and stem are similar and mainly show characteristic peaks of calcium oxalate and starch, whereas the characteristic peaks of calcium oxalate of leaf almost disappear and the shape of characteristic peak of starch also gets unconspicuous. The FT-IR spectra of total glycoside extract of radix, stem and leaf present characteristic peaks at 1602, 1514, 1452 cm(-1) (vibration of phenyl framework) and 1271 cm(-1) (==C--O), respectively, therefore, the authors speculated that their mutual component is the compound of phenolic glycoside. Through observing the second derivative IR spectra of the total glycoside extract of different parts of Acanthopanax senticosus Harms, the authors found that the characteristic peak of leaf is stronger than that of radix and stem at 1656 cm(-1) (flavone C==O), this proves that the quantity of component of flavone in the leaf is higher than that in the radix and stem. In the two-dimensional correlation spectra, the radix and stem both have five automatic peaks (vibration of phenyl framework) in 1350-1700 cm(-1), whereas the leaf still shows another automatic peak at 1656 cm(-1) (flavone C==O), and this further proves that the quantity of component of flavone in the leaf is higher than that in the radix and stem.

[Study on the identification of Illicium vatum Hook. f. and illicium lanceolatum A. C. Smith by multi-ateps infrared macro-fingerprint method].

Illicium vatum Hook. f. and its counterfeit Illicium lanceolatum A. C. Smith can be discriminated and identified by using multi-steps infrared maro-fingerprint method. The method combines three steps: general infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), secondary derivative spectroscopy and two dimensional correlation infrared spectroscopy (2D-IR). The resolution is getting higher and higher and the differences of spectra are magnified farther. The holistic shape of peaks is similar in the FTIR spectra of Illicium vatum Hook. f. and Illiciumrn lanceolatum A.C. Smith, but the spectra of llicium vatum Hook. f. show only one characteristic peak at 3 392 cm(-1), while the spectra of Illicium lanceolatum A. C. Smith show two characteristic peaks at 3482 and 3387 cm(-1), respectively. Observing their secondary derivative spectra, in the range of 850-1 180 cm(-1) the strongest peak of Ilicium vatum Hook. f. is at 1015 cm(-1) and the intensity of other strong peaks is similar. However, the strongest peak of Illicium lanceolatum A. C. Smith is at 1070 cm(-1). In 1180-1500 cm(-1), the intensity of peaks at 1469, 1454 and 1442 cm(-1) of Ilicium vatumrn Hook. f. is stronger than that of peaks at 1292, 1276, 1266 cm(-1). The status of Illicium lanceolatum A. C. Smith is just opposite. The distinction of 2D-IR correlation spectra is more obvious. In 1165-1500 cm(-1), the stronger automatic peaks of Ilicium vatum Hook. f. present at 1153 and 1000 cm(-1), respectively, but those of Illicium lanceolatum A. C. Smith present at 911 and 878 cm(-1), respectively. In 1165-1500 cm(-1), llicium vatum Hook. f. has two automatic peaks while Illicium lanceolatum A. C. Smith has five automatic peaks. The multi-steps IR macro-fingerprint method is rapid and effective.