Effect of sulfur fumigation on quality and safety of Lilii Bulbus / 中国中药杂志

Lilii Bulbus is a commonly used Chinese herbal medicine with both medicinal and edible values, while the market products usually has the problem of sulfur fumigation. Therefore, the quality and safety of Lilii Bulbus products deserve attention. In this study, ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-time of flight-tandem mass spectrometry(UPLC-Q-TOF-MS/MS) was combined with principal component analysis(PCA) and orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis(OPLS-DA) to analyze the differential components of Lilii Bulbus before and after sulfur fumigation. We identified ten markers generated after sulfur fumigation, summarized their mass fragmentation and transformation patterns, and verified the structures of phenylacrylic acid markers of sulfur fumigation. At the same time, the cytotoxicity of the aqueous extracts of Lilii Bulbus before and after sulfur fumigation was evaluated. The results showed that in the concentration range of 0-800 mg·L~(-1), the aqueous extract of Lilii Bulbus after sulfur fumigation had no significant effect on the viability of human liver LO2 cells, human renal proximal tubular HK-2 cells, and rat adrenal pheochromocytoma PC-12 cells. Moreover, the viability of the cells exposed to the aqueous extract of Lilii Bulbus before and after sulfur fumigation showed no significant difference. This study identified phenylacrylic acid and furostanol saponins as markers of sulfur-fumigated Lilii Bulbus for the first time, and made clear that proper sulfur fumigation of Lilii Bulbus would not produce cytotoxicity, providing a theoretical basis for the rapid identification and quality and safety control of sulfur-fumigated Lilii Bulbus.

Advances in quality research of Cinnamomum cassia / 中国中药杂志

Cinnamomum cassis is one of the commonly used traditional Chinese medicines in China. Its genuine producing areas distribute in Guangdong and Guangxi provinces. As an important edible herb and export variety of China, the quality control and internationalization of quality standards of C. cassis is extremely significant. In the recent years, with the development of the cinnamon industry, relevant academic research and the upgrade of the international standards, it is necessary to summarize the quality-related progress of C. cassis. In the present review, the germplasm resources, specific quality marker(Q-marker) and quality standards of C. cassis were summarized on the basis of published research during the last 10 years.