[Hypoglycemic mechanism of Psoraleae Fructus and its main chemical constituents].

With the rise of incidence, fatality rate, and number of young cases, diabetes mellitus has been one of the seven major diseases threatening human health. Although many antidiabetic drugs(oral or for injection) are available, the majority have serious side effects during the long-term use. Thus, it is of particularly vital to develop new drugs with low risk and definite effect. Psoraleae Fructus, a traditional medicinal widely used in the folk, has hypoglycemic, anti-osteoporosis, antitumor, estrogen-like, and anti-inflammatory effects. Thus, it has great clinical application potential. Chinese medicine and the active ingredients, characterized by multiple targets, multiple pathways, and multiple effects in the treatment of diabetes mellitus, have distinct advantages in clinical application. However, the safety of Chinese medicine remains to be a challenge, and one of keys is to clarifying the mechanism of a single Chinese medicinal and its active ingredients. With the method of literature research, this study summarized and analyzed the hypoglycemic mechanisms of Psoraleae Fructus and its main active ingredients over the last decade: regulating glucose metabolism, improving insulin resistance, and directly acting on pancreatic ß-cells. The result is expected to serve as a reference for further research on the effects of Psoraleae Fructus and its main chemical constituents in lowering blood glucose and preventing diabetes mellitus and the clinical application.

The complete chloroplast genome of Viola philippica (Violaceae).

Viola philippica, as a traditional Chinese medicine, has great value in treating various diseases. Here, we report the chloroplast genome of V. philippica and its phylogenetic feature. The complete chloroplast genome is 156,744 bp in length, assembled from 22,346,570 reads, and its GC contents ratio is 36.26%. Its long single-copy (LSC) region is 85,892 bp. The small single-copy (SSC) region covers 18,006 bp and inverted repeat (IR) is 26,423 bp. It encodes 77 genes, including 43 protein genes, 4 rRNA genes, and 30 tRNA genes. Moreover, according to the phylogenetic analysis for a total of 12 chloroplast sequences, V. philippica demonstrated close relationship within genus Viola.