[Textual research on Bungarus Parvus].

Bungarus Parvus, a precious animal Chinese medicinal material used in clinical practice, is believed to be first recorded in Ying Pian Xin Can published in 1936. This study was carried out to analyze the names, geographical distribution, morphological characteristics, ecological habits, poisonousness, and medicinal parts by consulting ancient Chinese medical books and local chronicles, Chinese Pharmacopeia, different processing standards of trditional Chinese medicine(TCM) decoction pieces, and modern literatures. The results showed that the earliest medicinal record of Bungarus Parvus was traced to 1894. In 1930, this medicinal material was used in the formulation of Annao Pills. The original animal, Bungarus multicinctus, was recorded by the name of "Bojijia" in 1521. The morphological characteristics, ecological habits, and poisonousness of the original animal are the same in ancient and modern records. The geographical distribution is similar between the ancient records and modern documents such as China Medicinal Animal Fauna. The dried body of young B. multicinctus is used as Bungarus Parvus, which lack detailed references. As a matter of fact, it is still inconclusive whether there are differences between young snakes and adult snakes in terms of active ingredients, pharmacological effects, and clinical applications. This study clarified the medicinal history and present situation of Bungarus Parvus. On the basis of the results, it is suggested that systematic comparison on young and adult B. multicinctus should be carried out to provide references for revising the medicinal parts of B. multicinctus.

Combined Metabolite Analysis and Network Pharmacology to Elucidate the Mechanisms of Therapeutic Effect of Melastoma dodecandrum Ellagitannins on Abnormal Uterine Bleeding.

The abnormal uterine bleeding (AUB) is complex and usually leads to severe anemia. Melastomadodecandrum (MD) is clinically used for the treatment of metrorrhagia bleeding. The MD ellagitannins (MD-ETs) had been evidenced being effective at hemorrhage, and exerts biological activities upon their metabolites including ellagic acid and urolithins. In this study, the blood-permeated metabolites from theMD-ETs were analyzed using LC-MS approach, and 19 metabolites including ellagic acid and urolithin A derivatives were identified. Furthermore, a network pharmacology analysis including the target prediction analysis, AUB target analysis, Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analysis were conducted to reveal the relationships between "metabolites-targets-pathways", which was further verified by molecular docking analysis. The results showed that methyl ellagic acid, urolithin A and isourolithin A produced from MD-ETs can be absorbed into the blood, and might act on the core targets of VEGFA, SRC, MTOR, EGFR and CCND1. And the hemostatic effects were exerted through PI3K-Akt, endocrine resistance and Rap 1 signaling pathways. These results implied the potential effective constituents and action mechanism of MD-ETs in the therapy of AUB, which will promote the application of MD-ETs as natural agent for the treatment of gynecological bleeding diseases.

Antioxidant potential and antioxidant compounds of extracts from the medicinal sulphur polypore, Laetiporus sulphureus (Higher Basidiomycetes) in submerged cultures.

Fermented products, dried mycelia broth, and mycelia-free broth of Laetiporus sulphureus submerged cultures were extracted with ethanol and hot water under optimal culture conditions and investigated for their antioxidant properties. Ethanolic extracts from dried mycelia broth (EEM) and mycelia-free broth (EEB) and hot water extracts from dried mycelia (HWEM) show extraordinary antioxidant properties for all EC50 values below 10 mg/mL except for EEM, as measured by the scavenging effects on DPPH radicals and chelating effects on ferrous ions. Ascorbic acid is rich in EEB and α-tocopherol, and total flavonoids are abundant in EEM. Total phenols are mainly found in EEB and HWEM. There is a high correlation between total phenol content and EC50 values. The correlation coefficient (R2) of the reducing power is 0.994; the R2 of the scavenging effect on DPPH radicals is 0.992; the R2 of the chelating effects on ferrous ions is 0.949; and the R2 of the scavenging effect on superoxide anions is 0.995. These results suggest that extracts of L. sulphureus fermented products are of considerable application potential in antioxidant-related pharmaceutical industries.