Molecular identification and efficacy analysis of herbs at Orussey Herbal Market, Phnom Penh, Cambodia / 中国中药杂志

Cambodia is rich in medicinal plant resources. One hundred and thirty-three medicinal material samples, including the hole herb, root, stem/branch, leaf, flower, fruit, seed, and resin, were collected from the Orussey Herbal Market in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and then authenticated by ITS and psbA-trnH. A total of 46 samples were identified based on ITS sequences, belonging to 24 families, 40 genera, and 42 species. A total of 100 samples were identified by psbA-trnH sequences to belong to 42 families, 77 genera, and 84 species. A total of 103 samples were identified by two DNA barcodes. According to the morphological characteristics of the medicinal materials, 120 samples classified into 50 species, 86 genera, and 86 families were identified, and the majority of them were from Zingiberaceae, Fabaceae, and Acanthaceae. Such samples have been commonly used in traditional Cambodian medicine, Ayurvedic medicine, Unani medicine, traditional Chinese medicine, and ethnomedicine, but different medical systems focus on different functional aspects of the same medicinal material. The results of this study have demonstrated that DNA barcoding has a significant advantage in identifying herbal products, and this study has provided basic data for understanding the traditional medicinal materials used in Cambodia.

Cranberry extract supplementation exerts preventive effects through alleviating Aβ toxicity in Caenorhabditis elegans model of Alzheimer's disease / 中国天然药物

Cranberry extract (CBE) rich in polyphenols are potent to delay paralysis induced by alleviating β-amyloid (Aβ) toxicity in C. elegans model of Alzheimer's disease (AD). In order to better apply CBE as an anti-AD agent efficiently, we sought to deterrmine whether preventive or therapeutic effect contributes more prominently toward CBE's anti-AD activity. As the level of Aβ toxicity and memory health are two major pathological parameters in AD, in the present study, we compared the effects of CBE on Aβ toxicity and memory health in the C. elegans AD model treated with preventive and therapeutic protocols. Our results revealed that CBE prominently showed the preventive efficacy, providing a basis for further investigation of these effects in mammals.