Colorimetric grading scale can promote the standardization of experiential and sensory evaluation in quality control of traditional Chinese medicines.

Experiential and sensory evaluation is an ancient method that remains important in the current quality control system of Traditional Chinese Medicines (TCMs). The process is rapid and convenient when evaluating the quality of crude materials in TCM markets. However, sensory evaluation has been met with skepticism because it is mainly based on experience and lacks a scientific basis. In this study, rhubarb was selected to demonstrate how color-based sensory evaluation could differentiate the quality of herbal medicines objectively. The colors of the rhubarb samples, expressed as RGB values, were obtained from different parts and forms of the plant, including the plant's surface, fracture surface color, and a powdered form with or without treatment with a color-developing reagent. We first divided the rhubarb samples into three grades based on the total content of five hydroxyanthraquinone derivatives, the major pharmacological components in rhubarb. Then, a three-layer back-propagation artificial neural network (BP-ANN), calibrated with selected training samples, was used to correlate the quality of the rhubarb with its color. The color of the rhubarb powder after coloration attained the highest accuracy (92.3%) in predicting the quality grade of the test samples with the established artificial neural networks. Finally, a standardized colorimetric grading scale was created based on the spatial distribution of the rhubarb samples in a two-dimensional chromaticity diagram according to the colors of the powdered rhubarb after color enhancement. By comparing the color between the scale and the tested samples, similar to performing a pH test with indicator paper, subjects without sensory evaluation experience could quickly determine the quality grade of rhubarb. This work illustrates the technical feasibility of the color-based grading of rhubarb quality and offers references for quantifying and standardizing the sensory evaluation of TCMs, foods and other products.

Study on the cold and hot properties of medicinal herbs by thermotropism in mice behavior.

It is a common sense that chewing a mint leaf causes a cold feeling, while masticating a piece of ginger root is associated with a hot sensation. The Traditional Chinese Medicine has termed this phenomenon as cold and hot properties of herbs and applied them in treating certain human diseases successfully for thousands of years. Here, we have developed an Animal Thermotropism Behavior Surveillance System, and by using this device and other approaches, we not only verified the existence of, but also characterized and quantitated the cold and hot properties of medicinal herbs in animal behavioral experiments. The results suggested that the hot and cold properties of herbal drugs indeed correlated with the alteration of animal behavior in search for residence temperature.

Clinical study on the treatment of knee osteoarthritis of Shen-Sui insufficiency syndrome type by electroacupuncture.

OBJECTIVE: To study the clinical effificacy of electroacupuncture (EA) on treating knee osteoarthritis (KOA) of Shen ()-Sui () insuffificiency (SSI) syndrome type. METHODS: A total of 245 patients (279 knees) of KOA-SSI were randomly assigned to two groups by lottery: 141 knees in the treatment group and 138 knees in the control group. The treatment group was managed with EA at the dominant points of Neixiyan (Ex-LE4) and Waixiyan (Ex-LE5) as well as the conjugate points of Xuanzhong (GB39) and Taixi (KI3) for 30 min, once a day, with 15 days as one course; 2 courses were applied with a 5-day interval in between. The control group was treated with intra-articular injection of 2 mL hyaluronic acid into the affected joint every 7 days for 5 times in total. The clinical effects on the patients in different stages were observed, and their symptom scores of knee and contents of cytokines, including interleukin-1 (IL-1), interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), prostaglandin E(2alpha) (PGE(2alpha)) and matrix metalloproteinases-3 (MMP-3), in the knee joint fluid were measured before and after treatment. RESULTS: The study was completed in 235 patients (263 knees); four patients (7 knees) in the treatment group and six patients (9 knees) in the control group dropped out. Comparison of therapeutic effects (excellent and effective rates) between the two groups showed insignificant differences (P>0.05). Symptom scores of knee and contents of cytokines in the knee flfluid after treatment were lowered signifificantly in the patients of stage I-III in both groups (P<0.05 or P<0.01). However, the lowering of the total symptom score of knee in the patients of stage III in the treatment group was more signifificant (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: EA could effectively alleviate the clinical symptoms in KOA patients of stage III, showing an effect superior to that of hyaluronic acid. EA also shows action in suppressing the secretion of IL-1, IL-6, TNF-alpha, PGE(2alpha) and MMP-3 in the knee flfluid.

[Antimicrobial activity and chemical differences between the two chemotypes of rhubarbs].

Through our pre-investigation and literature analysis, it was found that rhubarb could be categorized into two types, chrysophanol-type and rhein-type, based on the proportion of the two constituents in the total content of anthraquinones after acid hydrolysis. In this paper, the antimicrobial activities of chrysophanol-type and rhein-type rhubarbs against Staphylococcus aureus were compared with microcalorimetric analysis, in order to illustrate the bioactive differentiability between the two chemotypes. For the aim to display the distinction of chrysophanol and rhein percentage in total anthraquinones, the sampling volume was regulated to make the total anthraquinones equivalent, thus, the antimicrobial difference was only attributed to the difference of chemotypes. The results indicated that the antimicrobial difference between the two chemotypes was confirmable labeled at the biothermokinetic parameters of S. aureus growth affected by the rhubarb samples. The growth rate constant (k1) of the first exponential phase for the growth of S. aureus affected by the rhein-type rhubarb was significantly lower than that of chrysophanol-type (P<0.01), which suggested stronger antimicrobial activity of rhein-type rhubarb than that of chrysophanol-type. However, the antimicrobial activities of rhein-type rhubarbs were not positively correlated to the contents of rhein. It suggested that the antimicrobial activity of rhubarb might be related to some unknown components which were of same accumulating pattern of rhein. The findings in present study provided some experimental evidence on categorizing rhubarb into two chemotypes through the difference of antimicrobial activity on S. aureus by microcalorimetric analysis and, further, offered references to revision of the commercial specification of rhubarb from chemical view.

[Differences between cold and hot natures of processed Radix ginseng rubra and Panax quinquefolius L. based upon mice temperature tropism].

OBJECTIVE: To establish an objective method to estimate the disparity between the cold and hot natures on the basis of an intrinsic correlation between temperature tropism of mice and the cold and hot natures of Chinese medicines. METHODS: Male KM mice were randomly divided into 7 groups of 6 each, namely the normal group (NM), the weak model group (WM), the strong model group (SM), the weak model plus Radix ginseng rubra group (WM + RG), the weak model plus Panax quinquefolius L. group (WM + PQ), the strong model plus Radix ginseng rubra group (SM + RG) and the strong model plus Panax quinquefolius L. group (SM +PQ). The specific herbal drugs were administered intragastricly. To induce the weak model, mice were fed with a limited supply of feed and forced to swim in cold water until almost drowning while the strong model induced by feeding a high-protein diet with an unlimited feed access. The doses of Radix ginseng rubra and Panax quinquefolius L. were 35 mg/g of body weight per day (counted by the quantity of crude material) and lasting for seven days. The NM and model groups without dosing were intragastricly administered with physiological saline of the same volume to the dosing groups. The percentage of the remaining time of mouse on a high temperature (40 degrees C) pad to the total monitoring time was recorded by a self-designed intelligent animal behavior monitoring system. Meanwhile, the drinking volume of mice in each group was measured. Immediately after experiment, the activities of Na(+)K(+)-ATPase and superoxide dismutase (SOD) in liver tissue were measured by assay kits of phosphorus and xanthine oxidase methods respectively. RESULTS: The features of deficient and cold symptom, such as fatigue, stagnant weight growth, decreased water intake, cold limbs and tail etc, were observed in WM group. And the features of heat symptom, such as increased weight and water intake, hyperactivity etc, were observed in SM group. The percentage of time that the mouse remained on 40 degrees C pad of the WM group within the seven days experiment was significantly higher than that of the normal group (70.6% +/- 21.3% vs 52.1% +/- 6.5%, P < 0.05). While the value of SM group (45.7% +/- 4.6% ) was significantly lower than that of the normal group (P < 0.05); the value of WM + RG group and WM + PQ group were 65.6% +/- 7.8% and 75.3% +/- 13.0% respectively (both P < 0.05 compared with WM group); the values of SM + RG group and SM + PQ group were 36.1% +/- 15.5% and 55.5% +/- 7.7% respectively (both P < 0.05 compared with SM group). The activities of Na(+)K(+)-ATPase and SOD of WM mice treated with either Radix ginseng rubra or Panax quinquefolius L. were found to have a significant up-regulation (P < 0.05) as compared with untreated WM mice. But only the Panax quinquefolius L. showed an up-regulating effect upon Na(+)K(+) ATPase and SOD in SM mice. CONCLUSIONS: The external cold and hot natures of Radix ginseng rubra and Panax quinquefolius L. can be represented in an ethological way by the changes of animal's temperature tropism. And such a tropism may be internally regulated by body's energy metabolism.

[COLD and HOT nature of Coptis & Evodia and their prescriptions investigated with diet restriction/cold-water swimming mice models].

To establish a new method to evaluate the COLD and HOT nature of Coptis & Evodia and their prescriptions Zuojinwan and Fanzuojinwan. Physical models of mice were established by diet restriction with cold-water swimming (weak model, WM) and fed with high protein animal feeds (strong model, SM). An instrument with cold and hot pads was used to investigate the variation of temperature tropism among SM and WM groups of mice affected by drugs. Meanwhile, the oxygen consumption and activity of adenosine triphosphatase (ATPase) were detected, in order to investigate the mechanism of energy metabolism which might be affected by these drugs. The results showed that the drug effects gradually changed in an order of "Coptis-->Zuojinwan--> Fanzuojinwan-->Evodia". In detail, Coptis increased the remaining rate (RR) of mice on hot pad, decreased oxygen consumption and ATPase activity (n=6, P < 0.01 or P < 0.05), while Evodia performed inversely; which indicated the COLD nature of Coptis and HOT nature of Evodia, and confirmed with their traditional definition in medicinal works. In conclusion, the methods applied in this work, can objectively and directly express the nature disparity between the two herbs and predict the tendency of changes of the nature of their combination, which brings a new approach in investigation of the nature theory of traditional Chinese medicine.