[Chemistry and biology research on bitter-taste Chinese materia medica with function of regulating glycolipid metabolism].

The bitter taste is one of the important properties among five flavors of Chinese materia medica (CMM), characterized by downbearing and discharging, drying dampness, and consolidating Yin. In common CMM, bitter-taste CMM accounts for a large proportion, indicating the importance of it. Through the efficacy of clearing away heat and dampness, reducing fire and removing toxin, bitter-taste CMM has achieved good results in treating diabetes in clinical application, proving their definite therapeutic effect on regulating glucose and lipid metabolism (main features of diabetes). At present, there are many reports about the chemical constituents and pharmacological effects of CMM on diabetes, but there are few reviews on the chemistry and biology of bitter-taste CMM. This study summarized the properties and compatibility characteristics of bitter-taste CMM for treating diabetes, and mainly analyzed the chemistry and biology basis of bitter-taste CMM with function of regulating glycolipid metabolism, laying foundation for further researches on properties theory of CMM.

[Inheritance on and innovation of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) flavor theory and TCM flavor standardization principle flavor theory in Compendium of Materia Medica].

All previous literatures about Chinese herbal medicines show distinctive traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) flavors. Compendium of Materia Medica is an influential book in TCM history. The TCM flavor theory and flavor standardization principle in this book has important significance for modern TCM flavor standardization. Compendium of Materia Medica pays attention to the flavor theory, explain the relations between the flavor of medicine and its therapeutic effects by means of Neo-Confucianism of the Song and Ming Dynasties. However,the book has not reflected and further developed the systemic theory, which originated in the Jin and Yuan dynasty. In Compendium of Materia Medica , flavor are standardized just by tasting medicines, instead of deducing flavors. Therefore, medicine tasting should be adopted as the major method to standardize the flavor of medicine.

[Discussion on strengthening yin of chinese herbs with bitter-flavor clinical traditional Chinese pharmacology noun terminology standardization research].

Clinical traditional Chinese pharmacology is the subject that study of basic theory of traditional Chinese medicine, property of Chinese materia medica and clinical application. The study on the standardization research of the terminology of clinical traditional Chinese pharmacology is an important premise and foundation to standardization, modernization and internationalization, informationization construction of clinical traditional Chinese pharmacology and is also the important content of the subject construction. To provide some exploring ideas for clinical traditional Chinese pharmacology noun terminology standardization, this article elaborates the concept of strengthening Yin with bitter-flavor herbs in several aspects, such as connotation and the historical origin, the clinical application in the traditional, modern clinic application, and the modern basic research and so on.

The Trouble with Opium. Taste, Reason and Experience in Late Galenic Pharmacology with Special Regard to the University of Leiden (1575-1625).

In the seventeenth century, the discrepancy between the taste of some drugs and their effects on the body was used to criticize Galenic medicine. In this paper, I argue that such contradictions were brought to light by the sixteenth-century study of drug properties within the Galenic tradition itself. Investigating how the taste of a drug corresponded to the effects it had on the body became a core problem for maintaining a medical practice that was both rational and effective. I discuss four physicians, connected to the University of Leiden, who attempted to understand drug properties, including taste, within a Galenic framework. The sixteenth-century discussions about the relationship between the senses, reason and experience, will help us understand the seventeenth-century criticism of Galenic medicine and the importance of discussions about materia medica for ideas regarding the properties of matter proposed in this period.

[A discussion on the reason of differences between property and flavor of Chinese Materia Medica of ancient and modern times].

The property and flavor (four properties of cold, hot, warm, cool and five flavors of spicy, sweet, bitter, sour, salty) which marked the function and efficacy of Chinese Materia Medica had different records in TCM ancient literature, even being completely opposite. By analyzing the reason, it mainly involves such aspects as different properties of soil and water, different harvesting seasons, incorrect nomenclature not corresponding to reality, different angles, double properties and flavors, former mistakes and latter corrections, different processing methods etc.

Use of an ?electronic tongue? in the assessment of highly diluted systems / Use of an ?electronic tongue? in the assessment of highly diluted systems

Introduction: ?Eletronic tongue? is a device commonly used in the analysis of tastants, heavy metal ions, fruit juice, wines and also in the development of biosensors [1-3]. Briefly, the e-tongue is constituted by sensing units formed by ultrathin films of distinct materials deposited on gold interdigitated electrodes, which are immersed in liquid samples, followed by impedance spectroscopy measurements [1]. The e-tongue sensor is based on the global selectivity concept, i.e., the materials forming the sensing units are not selective to any substance in the samples, therefore, it allows the grouping of information into distinct patterns of response, enabling the distinction of complex liquid systems [1].Conclusion: Despite the differences of data obtained along distinct days of analysis, the e-tongue could detect differences among the samples tested, even considering the highly diluted cases studied.(AU)

De la papille alimentaire au similimum salvateur / About taste buds to the savidor similimum

Les cinq saveurs de la tradition taoiste nous paraissent un bon guide dans le dedale de la gastronomie homeopathique et ses Desirs et Aversions alimantaires si caracteristiques. Par le jeu des cinq elements, cette... (AU)

Comparación de olor, cuerpo, sabor y sensación posterior a la ingesta que producen cinco ampicilinas y dos trimetoprim-sulfametoxazol en presentaciones líquidas con sabor distinto / Comparison of the smell, body, taste and sensibility produced by five oral ampicillins and two trimetoprim-sulfametoxazol liquid formulations with different taste

Una de las características para el cumplimiento adecuado del tratamiento con un antibiótico líquido en la edad pediátrica es que el gusto y la sensación posterior a la ingestión sean acetables al paladar del niño. Se comparan siete suspensiones de antimicrobianos (cinco ampicilinas y dos trimetoprim-sulfametoxazol) de uso común en pediatría en un estudio doble ciego con 50 médicos pediatras voluntarios a determinar diferencias en la aceptabilidad del olor, textura, gusto, sensación posterior a la ingestión y el total de los antibióticos orales. en el recuento total el mejor es Pentrexyl, con diferencias significativas (p< 0.05), seguidos de omnipen, Binotal y pembritin sin diferencias significativas entre ellos, seguido de Lampicin y al final se encuentran Septrin y Bactrim. En el gusto el mejor fue Pentrexyl con diferenias significativa al resto. Muchos clínicos pueden considerar lo resultados del presente estudio, para seleccionar una suspensión antimicrobiana y así obtener un mejor cumplimiento del tratamiento