[Effects of growth patterns and years on quality of Saposhnikoviae Radix samples].

This study aims to reveal the effects of different growth patterns and years on the quality of Saposhnikoviae Radix samples. The apparent colors of the powder samples were quantified by a colorimeter, and the total color values(E~*ab) were calculated. The content of prim-O-glucosylcimifugin, cimifugin, 4'-O-ß-D-glucosyl-5-O-methylvisamminol, sec-O-glucosylhamaudol, and 3'-O-angeloylhamaudol in the samples was simultaneously determined by high performance liquid chromatography(HPLC). Cluster analysis, principal component analysis, partial least squares discriminant analysis, and Pearson correlation analysis were performed to analyze the powder chromatic values and the content of 5 components. The results showed that the E~*ab values of the samples were in the order of wild group<multiple-year-old group<one-year-old group. The content of cimifugin, sec-O-glucosylhamaudol, and 3'-O-angeloylhamaudol in the wild group was significantly higher than that in the multiple-year-old and one-year-old groups. The results of multivariate statistical analysis showed that the quality of multiple-year-old group varied greatly. The quality of the multiple-year-old samples was close to that of the wild group and better than that of the one-year-old group. The variable importance in the projection(VIP) values of b~*, 3'-O-angeloylhamaudol content, E~*ab, and L~* were all larger than 1, and that of cimifugin content was close to 1. The E~*ab value was negatively correlated with the content of prim-O-glucosylcimifugin, cimifugin, sec-O-glucosylhamaudol, and 3'-O-angeloylhamaudol, while it had no linear correlation with the 4'-O-ß-D-glucosyl-5-O-methylvisamminol content. The growth patterns and years had different effects on the quality of Saposhnikoviae Radix samples. The chromatic values of Saposhnikoviae Radix and the content of 5 components can be used to evaluate the quality of Saposhnikoviae Radix, and 3'-O-angeloylhamaudol and cinmifugin can be considered as markers for the quality control of Saposhnikovia divaricata during the growing process.

Saponins of ginseng products: a review of their transformation in processing.

The primary processed product of Panax ginseng C.A. Meyer (P. ginseng) is red ginseng. As technology advances, new products of red ginseng have arisen. Red ginseng products, e.g., traditional red ginseng, sun ginseng, black ginseng, fermented red ginseng, and puffed red ginseng, are commonly used in herbal medicine. Ginsenosides are the major secondary metabolites of P. ginseng. The constituents of P. ginseng are significantly changed during processing, and several pharmacological activities of red ginseng products are dramatically increased compared to white ginseng. In this paper, we aimed to review the ginsenosides and pharmacological activities of various red ginseng products, the transformation law of ginsenosides in processing, and some clinical trials of red ginseng products. This article will help to highlight the diverse pharmacological properties of red ginseng products and aid in the future development of red ginseng industrialization.

Network Pharmacology-Based Strategy to Investigate the Pharmacologic Mechanisms of Coptidis Rhizoma for the Treatment of Alzheimer's Disease.

Background: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is becoming a more prevalent public health issue in today's culture. The experimental study of Coptidis Rhizoma (CR) and its chemical components in AD treatment has been widely reported, but the principle of multi-level and multi-mechanism treatment of AD urgently needs to be clarified. Objective: This study focuses on network pharmacology to clarify the mechanism of CR's multi-target impact on Alzheimer's disease. Methods: The Phytochemical-compounds of CR have been accessed from the Traditional Chinese Medicine Database and Analysis Platform (TCMSP) and Symmap database or HPLC determination. The values of Oral Bioavailability (OB) ≥ 30% and Drug Like (DL) ≥ 0.18 or blood ingredient were used to screen the active components of CR; the interactive network of targets and compounds were constructed by STRING and Cytoscape platform, and the network was analyzed by Molecular Complex Detection (MCODE); Gene Ontology (GO) function, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes Pathway (KEGG) and metabolic pathway enrichment of targets were carried out with Metascape, the Database for Annotation, Visualization and Integrated Discovery (DAVID) and MetaboAnalyst platform; Based on CytoHubba, the potential efficient targets were screened by Maximal Clique Centrality (MCC) and Degree, the correlation between potential efficient targets and amyloid ß-protein (Aß), Tau pathology was analyzed by Alzdata database, and the genes related to aging were analyzed by Aging Altas database, and finally, the core targets were obtained; the binding ability between ingredients and core targets evaluated by molecular docking, and the clinical significance of core targets was assessed with Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. Results: 19 active components correspond to 267 therapeutic targets for AD, of which 69 is potentially effective; in module analysis, RELA, TRAF2, STAT3, and so on are the critical targets of each module; among the six core targets, RELA, MAPK8, STAT3, and TGFB1 have clinical therapeutic significance; GO function, including 3050 biological processes (BP), 257 molecular functions (MF), 184 cellular components (CC), whose functions are mainly related to antioxidation, regulation of apoptosis and cell composition; the HIF-1 signaling pathway, glutathione metabolism is the most significant result of 134 KEGG signal pathways and four metabolic pathways, respectively; most of the active components have an excellent affinity in docking with critical targets. Conclusion: The pharmacological target prediction of CR based on molecular network pharmacology paves the way for a multi-level networking strategy. The study of CR in AD treatment shows a bright prospect for curing neurodegenerative diseases.

Effect of cultivation ages on anti-inflammatory activity of a new type of red ginseng.

Ginseng has been widely applied in clinical practice, but the cultivation age cannot be ignored as it influences the quality of ginseng and its products. In this work, different cultivation ages of fresh ginseng (FG) from four to seven years were analysed by UPLC-Q-TOF-MS/MS. Principal component analysis and supervised orthogonal partial least squared discrimination analysis, which belong to the normal method of multivariate statistical analysis, were applied to discover the characteristic components of FG at different cultivation ages. The components of new type of red ginseng (NRG) derived from FG at different cultivation ages were compared by HPLC analysis. The pharmacological anti-inflammatory activity was evaluated by ELISA and qPCR. The result showed that the characteristic components of both 6- and 7-year-old ginseng were ginsenoside Rb1, mal-ginsenoside Rb1, ginsenoside Rc, mal-ginsenoside Rc, mal-ginsenoside Rb1 isomer, and mal-ginsenoside Rb2. Moreover, the characteristic components of both 4- and 5-year-old ginseng were ADP-glucose and 3-hydroxyhexanoyl CoA. In addition, 6-year-old NRG has higher rare ginsenosides than 4-year-old NRG, which possesses great anti-inflammatory activity in vitro. The results reveal the ginsenoside transformation law of NRG processing and suggest that the cultivation age of FG influences the content of ginsenosides in NRG. Therefore, 6-year-old ginseng is more suitable for red ginseng processing and clinical use.

Comparative Studies on Chemical Contents and Effect in Kidney-Yang Deficiency Rats of Salt-Processed Product and Wine-Processed Product of Cuscutae Semen.

Cuscutae Semen mainly includes salt-processed product (SPP) and wine-processed product (WPP), which are most commonly used in traditional Chinese medicine. However, the differences between SPP and WPP have not been reported. In this paper, comparative studies between SPP and WPP on chemical contents and effect in kidney-yang deficiency rats have been investigated. UPLC-MS/MS was used to study the differences in chemical components. Kidney-yang deficiency was induced by hydrocortisone in rats. Rats were orally administrated with different doses of Jinkui Shenqi Pills, SPP, and WPP for 28 days. The average organ coefficients, renal function indexes, sex hormone levels, and testicular morphology were detected. As a result, the contents of flavonoids and chlorogenic acids were higher in SPP than in WPP, which may be caused by different processing methods. The improvement on reproduction of SPP was reflected in organ coefficients, renal function indexes, and biochemical properties of seminal plasma; furthermore, WPP was in sex hormone levels and morphology of testis. As a conclusion, these results indicated that both SPP and WPP can improve the reproductive function of kidney-yang deficiency rats with different mechanisms, which may be due to the differences in chemical contents between WPP and SPP as well as different processing methods. It is the first time that the differences between SPP and WPP have been studied in reproductive function in rats with kidney-yang deficiency.

Chemical Comparison of Two Drying Methods of Mountain Cultivated Ginseng by UPLC-QTOF-MS/MS and Multivariate Statistical Analysis.

In traditional Chinese medicine practice, drying method is an essential factor to influence the components of Chinese medicinal herbs. In this study, an ultra-performance liquid chromatography quadrupole time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-QTOF-MS/MS)-based approach was used to compare the content of chemical compounds of mountain cultivated ginseng that had been natural air dried (LX-P) and vacuum freeze-dried (LX-L). Multivariate statistical analysis such as principal component analysis (PCA) and supervised orthogonal partial least squared discrimination analysis (OPLS-DA) were used to select the influential components of different samples. There were 41 ginsenosides unambiguously identified and tentatively assigned in both LX-L and LX-P. The results showed that the characteristic components in LX-P were ginsenoside Rb1, ginsenoside Rc, ginsenoside Rg6, dendrolasin, and ginsenoside Rb2. The characteristic components in LX-L were malonyl-ginsenoside Re, malonyl-ginsenoside Rb1, malonyl-ginsenoside Rc, malonyl-ginsenoside Rb1 isomer, malonyl-ginsenoside Rb2, malonyl-ginsenoside Rb3, malonyl-ginsenoside Rd isomer, gypenoside XVII, and notoginsenoside Fe. This is the first time that the differences between LX-L and LX-P have been observed systematically at the chemistry level. It was indicated that vacuum freeze-drying method can improve the content of malonyl-ginsensides in mountain cultivated ginseng.

[Analysis of color regulation of Fluoritum in Chinese Pharmacopoeia based on the coloration mechanism of Fluorite].

The fluoritum is used for gynecology frequently and it's for those diseases: kidney yang deficiency, Gong cold sterility, palpitation due to fright, insomnia and dreaminess and cold cough. It's ruled in Chinese Pharmacopoeia (1985 edition) that the fluoritum originates from fluorite which belongs to fluoride minerals. Its main content is CaF2. The colors are of differents grades with purple or green. In the market, there are large differences in quality and it has various colors. Besides of the ruled color of purple and green, white and yellow are also common colors. By digging into and analysis the relevant research literature of fluorite which belongs to fluoride minerals, colors and coloration mechanism of fluorite are summarized in this paper.Natural fluorite is the mineral which has the most species of colors in nature. The different colors of fluorite are mainly caused by the impurity elements. At present, there are mainly about the coloration mechanism of fluorite: rare earth ions (4fN ions), color center, inclusions, crystalline domains or sub microscopic inclusions. The green of fluorite is produced by 570 nm and 305 nm absorption peaks which are caused by Sm2+ and compensated ions Na+ centers generated color center. The yellow of fluorite is produced by the joining of transition element, resulting in the formation of charge transfer between the crystal ions and the formation of O2-O32- ion molecule.The black of fluorite, mainly was attributed to the existence of a higher degree of evolution of organic matter. In this passage,suggestions for modification of the properties of fluoritum in Chinese Pharmacopoeia are put forward.