[Research on standard of Magnoliae Officinalis Cortex commercial specification and grade].

The market and literature were studied to understand the existing situation of Magnoliae Officinalis Cortex goods, and the collected samples were analyzed, combined with the actual production, a new standard of Magnoliae Officinalis Cortex commercial specification and grade was drafted. Magnoliae Officinalis Cortex goods was divided into two categories according to the source in the old standard. Then each category was divided into four kinds of specifications according to the site. Each kind of specification was divided into several grades according to the length and weight. To judge the quality of Magnoliae Officinalis Cortex goods was mainly based on the appearance quality. In the new standard, the classification of commercial specification and grade is based on the thickness, magnolol and honokiol content. The goods of Magnoliae Officinalis Cortex can be divided into three specifications: Tongpu, Genpu and Doupu. Tongpu is divided into three grades, the remaining two are not graded.

[Quality Suitability of Magnolia officinalis in China Based on GIS].

OBJECTIVE: To study the quality suitability rank dividing of Magnolia officinalis on the basis of investigation on the correlation between the ratio of magnolol and honokiol in Magnoliae Officinalis Cortex and ecological factors, in order to provide scientific basis for its planting area of high-quality medicinal materials. METHODS: Based on the samples' quality analysis of 43 sampling points of Magnolia officinalis,the relationship between the ratio of magnolol and honokiol in Magnoliae officinalis Cortex and ecological factors was analyzed by statistical analysis. The geographic information system(GIS) was applied to assess the quality suitability rank dividing of Magnolia officinalis in China. RESULTS: There were 12 ecological factors mainly affecting the quality of Magnoliae Officinalis Cortex; The ratio of magnolol and honokiol had obvious characteristics of regional quality. Conclusion: Magnoliae Officinalis Cortex which produced in Hubei and Chongqing is dao-di herbs.

Separation of palonosetron stereoisomers by electrokinetic chromatography using sodium cholate as chiral selector: comparison of separation modes and elucidation of migration orders.

Based on sodium cholate as chiral selector, four stereoisomers of palonosetron hydrochloride, i.e. PALO (3aS, 2S), PALO (3aR, 2R), PALO (3aS, 2R), and PALO (3aR, 2S), have been separated by five EKC modes, i.e. MEKC, solvent-modified MEKC, cosurfactant-modified MEKC, MEEKC, and MEEKC without cosurfactant. The performances of different modes were compared. The migration order and its change with experimental conditions were elucidated. In every mode studied, the migration orders in each enantiomeric pair were (3aS, 2S), (3aR, 2R) and (3aS, 2R), (3aR, 2S), respectively, determined by the selectivity of chiral selector (chromatographic mechanism). Enantiomeric pair (3aS, 2S), (3aR, 2R) was eluted before enantiomeric pair (3aS, 2R), (3aR, 2S) due to mobility difference (electrophoretic mechanism). For the separation between (3aR, 2R) and (3aS, 2R), the second enantiomer of the first pair and the first enantiomer of the second pair, two mechanisms gave opposite migration orders according to the measured selectivity and mobility data. Therefore, three different migration orders were observed at different conditions, depending on the relative strength of two effects.

[The relationship between the quality and the leaf shape of Magnolia officinalis produced in Hubei enshi].

OBJECTIVE: To reveal the relationship between the quality and the leaf shape of Magnolia officinalis produced in Hubei Enshi. METHODS: Determined the content of magnolol and honokiol by HPLC with methanol-water (78:22) and the detective wavelength was 294 nm. RESULTS: The content of magnolol and honokiol in the leaf of Magnolia officinalis was usually higher if the leaf apex was convex and the leaves were short. In certain years, the content of magnolol and honokiol in Cortex Magnoliae officinalis was positively correlated with the bark thickness. CONCLUSION: The leaf shape of Magnolia officinalis produced in Hubei Enshi is directly related to the phenolic content of leaf itself. But it has nothing to do with the content of magnolol and honokiol in Cortex Magnoliae officinalis.

Effects of ozone water irrigation and spraying on physiological characteristics and gene expression of tomato seedlings.

Tomato seedlings were used as experimental materials and treated with 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, and 4.0 mg/L ozone water irrigation and 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, and 0.8 mg/L ozone water spray treatments. Indexes including the malondialdehyde (MDA) content, superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD) and catalase (CAT), activities, soil and plant analysis development (SPAD) value, and nitrogen content of leaves were measured. Furthermore, the expression of antioxidant enzyme, chlorophyll synthesis and nitrogen absorption genes was analyzed after optimal ozone water treatment. The results showed that the activities of antioxidant enzymes in tomato leaves were significantly increased, and the MDA content in tomato leaves was significantly reduced by ozone water irrigation and spray treatment, which indicated that ozone water treatment can significantly improve the stress tolerance of tomato seedlings. Ozone water irrigation and spraying could also significantly increase the leaf SPAD value and nitrogen content of tomato seedlings, and the optimal concentrations of ozone water irrigation and spraying were 3.0 mg/L and 0.6 mg/L, respectively. The effect of ozone water irrigation on improving the physiological characteristics of tomato seedlings was better than that of spraying. After treatment with the optimal concentration of ozone water, the relative expression of antioxidant enzyme, chlorophyll synthesis, and nitrogen absorption genes was significantly increased, and the maximum expression level was reached at 12 h. In addition, ozone water irrigation could promote the expression of genes more than ozone water spraying, which was consistent with the improvements in the physiological characteristics of the tomato seedlings.

[Influence of HLA-A, B loci carrying Bw4 motif on HIV CD4 T cell count and viral load].

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the influence of Bw4 motif carried by HLA-A, B loci on CD4 T cell count and viral load of primary HIV infectors. METHODS: The technique of SSP-PCR was employed to detect the HLA-A, B allele typing in 95 HIV infectors. And the roles of Bw4 motif carried by HLA-A, B loci on CD4 T cell count and viral load were analyzed. RESULTS: (1) The population frequency of HLA-A, B loci carrying Bw4 motif was respectively 32.6% (31/95) and 60.0% (57/95). The population frequency of Bw4/4, Bw4/6, Bw6/6 located on HLA-B was 21.1% (20/95), 38.9% (37/95) and 40.0% (38/95) respectively. (2) Compared with those with CD4 T cell count less than 500/µl, more Bw4 motifs were expressed on HLA-A, B loci of patients with CD4 cell count more than 500/µl (mean rank, 56.7 vs 41.6, U = 749.5, P < 0.01). Moreover, the fewest infectors were those with HLA-A, B carrying 3 Bw4 motifs and CD4 T cell count fewer than 500/µl (1 case). And secondly were those with HLA-A, B carrying 0 or 3 Bw4 motif and CD4 cell count more than 500/µl (7 cases, χ(2) = 12.6, P < 0.01). (3) The infectors with HLA-A, B loci carrying 3 Bw4 motifs had more CD4 T cell count (median: 651/µl) and less viral load(lg median: 3.43)than those with HLA-A, B carrying 0 or 1 Bw4 motif (430 and 425/µl, 4.48 and 4.40). And the difference was significant (all P < 0.05). However, the CD4 cell count and viral load between the patients with HLA-A, B carrying 2 Bw4 motifs and 3 Bw4 motifs were insignificantly different (P > 0.05). (4) Irrespective of Bw4 motif on HLA-A locus, the infectors HLA-B carrying Bw4/4 homozygote had more CD4 cell count (median: 538/µl) and less viral load (lg median: 3.53) than those carrying Bw4/6 heterozygote or Bw6/6 homozygote (433/µl and 427/µl, 4.29 and 4.48, all P < 0.05). However, irrespective of Bw4 motif on HLA-B, the CD4 cell count and viral load were insignificantly different between the infectors HLA-A carrying Bw4 motif and non-Bw4 motif. CONCLUSION: Bw4 motifs can increase the CD4 cell count and decrease the viral load of patients with primary HIV infection. Maybe Bw4/4 homozygote on HLA-B plays a role of delaying the disease progression.

[Construction on ISSR fingerprint of Magnolia officinalis from Enshi in Hubei province].

OBJECTIVE: To establish the ISSR fingerprint of the cortex of Magnolia officinalis produced from Enshi. METHODS: Cultivar and habit identification was based on Inter-simple sequence repeats (ISSR). RESULTS: Two ISSR primes could be used to construct the ISSR fingerprint of M. officinalis from Enshi. CONCLUSION: The ISSR marker is an effective method for the cultivar and habit identification of the cortex of M. officinralis.

Distribution and re-transportation of sodium in three Malus species with different salt tolerance.

To further dissect the mechanism of salt tolerance in Malus, the comparison was made regarding the differences between the salt-tolerant and salt-sensitive species in sodium accumulation and extrusion capability in the roots and stem base as well as the sodium re-transportation from shoot to roots by using 22Na labeling-based feeding of leaves and roots-split experiments. The results demonstrated that the salt-tolerant Malus species could accumulate more 22Na in the main roots, lateral roots, stem base phloem and xylem, and extrude more sodium out than the salt-sensitive one. In addition, the salt-tolerant Malus species had the higher sodium re-transportation rate from shoot to roots. Altogether, it is concluded that the stronger sodium accumulation and extrusion in the roots and the stronger sodium re-transportation from shoot to roots in the salt-tolerant species play important roles in salt tolerance of Malus species.

Prospectives for applying molecular and genetic methodology to improve wheat cultivars in drought environments.

With the advent of molecular biotechnologies, new opportunities are available for plant physiologists to study the relationships between wheat traits and their genetic control. The functional determinations of all genes that participate in drought adaptation or tolerance reactions are expected to provide an integrated understanding of the biochemical and physiological basis of stress responses in wheat. However, despite all the recent technological breakthroughs, the overall contribution of genomics-assisted breeding to the release of drought-resilient wheat cultivars has so far been marginal. This paper critically analyses how biotechnological, genetic and information tools can contribute to accelerating the release of improved, drought-tolerant wheat cultivars. Armed with such information from established models, it will be possible to elucidate the physiological basis of drought tolerance and to select genotypes with an improved yield under water-limited conditions.

Diammonium aqua-(ethyl-ene-diamine-tetra-acetato)iron(II) trihydrate.

In the title compound, (NH(4))(2)[Fe(C(10)H(12)N(2)O(8))(H(2)O)]·3H(2)O, the Fe(II) center is in a distorted penta-gonal-bipyramidal geometry. Two carboxyl-ate O and two N atoms from the ethyl-enediaminetetra-acetate (EDTA) ion and one O atom from coordinated water comprise the equatorial plane. Two other carboxyl-ate O atoms from the EDTA ion occupy the apical sites. Both ammonium cations and all water mol-ecules function as hydrogen-bond donors, and ten N-H⋯O and nine O-H⋯O hydrogen bonds form a three-dimensional network between the complex anions, cations and the water mol-ecules.

[Phenols in seedling cortex of Magnolia officinalis from Enshi].

OBJECTIVE: To study the phenols in Cortex of Magnolia officinalis of biernial seedings produced in Enshi, Hubei. METHODS: The content of magnolol and honokiol in cortexes were determined by HPLC. The chromatograms of 10 samples seedling cortexes were recorded and compared. RESULTS: The content of magnolol and honokiol in Cortex of Magnolia officinalis of the seedlings from Enshi was higher than other samples. There were ten characteristic absorption bands in the HPLC chromatograms, which differed from the cortex of adult trees. CONCLUSION: The results can be used to identify the quality of the seedlings for the breeding.

Transcriptomic identification of salt-related genes and de novo assembly in common buckwheat (F. esculentum).

Common buckwheat (F. esculentum), annually herbaceous crop, is prevalent in people's daily life with the increasing development of economics. Compared with wheat, it is highly praised with high content of rutin and flavonoid. Common buckwheat is recognized as healthy food with good taste, and the product price of which such as noodles, flour, bread and so on are higher than wheat, and the seeds of which are bigger than that of tartary buckwheat, so if common buckwheat are planted more widely, people will spend less money on this healthy and delicious food. However, soil salinity has been a giant problem for agriculture production. The cultivation of salt tolerant crop varieties is an effective way to make full use of saline alkali land, and the highest salinity that the common buckwheat can sow is at 6.0%, so we chose 100 mM as the concentration of NaCl for treatment. Then we conducted transcriptome comparison between control and treatment groups. Potential regulatory genes related salt stress in common buckwheat were identified. A total of 29.36 million clean reads were produced via an illumina sequencing approach. We de novo assembled these reads into a transcriptome dataset containing 43,772 unigenes with N50 length of 1778 bp. A total of 26,672 unigenes could be found matches in public databases. GO, KEGG and Swiss-Prot classification suggested the enrichment of these unigenes in 47 sub-categories, 25 KOG and 129 pathways, respectively. We got 385 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) after comparing the transcriptome data between salt treatment and control groups. There are some genes encoded for responsing to stimulus, cell killing, metabolic process, signaling, multi-organism process, growth and cellular process might be relevant to salt stress in common buckwheat, which will provide a valuable references for the study on mechanism of salt tolerance and will be used as a genetic information for cultivating strong salt tolerant common buckwheat varieties in the future.

Cross-reactive cytotoxic T lymphocytes against a HIV-1 p24 epitope in slow progressors with B*57.

OBJECTIVES: To determine whether CD8 T lymphocytes from HIV-1-infected patients expressing B*5701 and B*5703 show broad cross-reactivity against different variants of a conserved p24 epitope, which might account for the good prognosis of HIV-1-infected individuals with HLA-B*57. DESIGN: B*5701+ and B*5703+ were recruited from Nairobi, Kenya and from Oxford, UK. All patients had been HIV positive for at least 8 years and could be categorized as slow progressors. METHODS: CD8 cytotoxic T cell clones were generated from B*5701+ and B*5703+ donors and tested for their ability to recognize clade variants of an index p24 epitope in standard cytolytic assays. Cross-reactive responses in freshly isolated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) were assessed by interferon-gamma (IFNgamma) production and tetramer binding. RESULTS: Broad cross-clade reactivity for both cytolysis and tetramer binding was observed in CD8 T cell clones from patients harbouring the index epitope sequence. Patterns of cross-reactivity were similar in freshly isolated PBMC but varied between individuals in terms of strength and breath of responses generated. One common variant induced an unusual response with tetramer binding but often failed to induce IFNgamma production, and another was a weak stimulator of both IFNgamma and cytolytic activity. CONCLUSION: B*5701+ and B5703+ donors demonstrate broad functional cross-reactivity to both common and rare variants of a dominant p24 epitope, which could be relevant to the association of B*57 alleles with slow progression to AIDS.

The Antitumor Effects of Triterpenoid Saponins from the Anemone flaccida and the Underlying Mechanism.

Anemone flaccida Fr. Schmidt, a family of ancient hopanoids, have been used as traditional Asian herbs for the treatments of inflammation and convulsant diseases. Previous study on HeLa cells suggested that triterpenoid saponins from Anemone flaccida Fr. Schmidt may have potential antitumor effect due to their apoptotic activities. Here, we confirmed the apoptotic activities of the following five triterpenoid saponins: glycoside St-I4a (1), glycoside St-J (2), anhuienoside E (3), hedera saponin B (4), and flaccidoside II (5) on human BEL-7402 and HepG2 hepatoma cell lines, as well as the model of HeLa cells treated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS). We found that COX-2/PGE2 signaling pathway, which plays key roles in the development of cancer, is involved in the antitumor activities of these saponins. These data provide the evidence that triterpenoid saponins can induce apoptosis via COX-2/PGE2 pathway, implying a preventive role of saponins from Anemone flaccida in tumor.