[ZHANG Wei-hua's clinical experience of Zhenjing Anshen method in treatment of insomnia].

The paper summarizes professor ZHANG Wei-hua's clinical experience in treatment of insomnia with Zhenjing Anshen (calming-down the spirit) method. It is believed that insomnia results from the unstable spirit in pathogenesis of TCM. The basic therapeutic principle is regulating the spirit, in which, stabilizing the primary spirit and tranquilizing the heart spirit are emphasized. Main acupoints are Baihui (GV 20), Sishencong (EX-HN 1) and Yintang (GV 24+) to stabilize the primary spirit, located on the head; and Shenmen (HT 7) located on the wrist to calm-down the heart spirit, as well as Sanyinjiao (SP 6) and Yongquan (KI 1) in the lower extremities to benefit yin and balance yang, and then to house the spirit eventually. The needles are inserted in different depths and to various directions. The external application of herbal plaster is combined at Yongquan (KI 1) and the supplementary acupoints are selected in terms of syndrome differentiation. This therapy is simple in acupoint selection and very effective in treatment of insomnia.

[Professor ZHANG Wei-hua's clinical experience in chronic somatic pain treated with zhidong needling techniques].

The paper summarizes professor ZHANG Wei-hua's clinical experience for the treatment of chronic somatic pain with zhidong needling techniques. In terms of the characteristics of chronic somatic pain, professor ZHANG has integrated zhidong needling with acupuncture kinetic therapy. The satisfactory therapeutic effects are obtained by selecting the painful points and regions as the treatment sites and the specific techniques of zhidong needling depending on the size of affected area, the depth of illness, the size and shape of the cord-like muscle, etc. Five techniques of zhidong needling are used accordingly with twirling, pulling, lifting and thrusting, surrounding needling methods involved, as well as with the manipulation speed, direction and frequency considered.

Sequence Analysis of the Complete Mitochondrial Genome of a Medicinal Plant, Vitex rotundifolia Linnaeus f. (Lamiales: Lamiaceae).

In the present study, we depicted the complete mitochondrial genome of a valuable medicinal plant, Vitex rotundifolia. The mitochondrial genome of V. rotundifolia, mapped as a circular molecule, spanned 380,980 bp in length and had a GC content of 45.54%. The complete genome contained 38 protein-coding genes, 19 transfer RNAs (tRNAs), and 3 ribosomal RNAs (rRNAs). We found that there were only 38.73% (147.54 kb), 36.28% (138.23 kb), and 52.22% (198.96 kb) of the homologous sequences in the mitochondrial genome of V. rotundifolia, as compared with the mitochondrial genomes of Scutellaria tsinyunensis, Boea hygrometrica, and Erythranthe lutea, respectively. A multipartite structure mediated by the homologous recombinations of the three direct repeats was found in the V. rotundifolia mitochondrial genome. The phylogenetic tree was built based on 10 species of Lamiales, using the maximum likelihood method. Moreover, this phylogenetic analysis is the first to present the evolutionary relationship of V. rotundifolia with the other species in Lamiales, based on the complete mitochondrial genome.