Altitudinal Variation of Metabolites, Mineral Elements and Antioxidant Activities of Rhodiola crenulata (Hook.f. & Thomson) H.Ohba.

Rhodiolacrenulata (Hook.f. & Thomson) H.Ohba is an alpine medicinal plant that can survive in extreme high altitude environments. However, its changes to extreme high altitude are not yet clear. In this study, the response of Rhodiola crenulata to differences in altitude gradients was investigated through chemical, ICP-MS and metabolomic methods. A targeted study of Rhodiola crenulata growing at three vertical altitudes revealed that the contents of seven elements Ca, Sr, B, Mn, Ni, Cu, and Cd, the phenolic components, the ascorbic acid, the ascorbic acid/dehydroascorbate ratio, and the antioxidant capacity were positively correlated with altitude, while the opposite was true for total ascorbic acid content. Furthermore, 1165 metabolites were identified: flavonoids (200), gallic acids (30), phenylpropanoids (237), amino acids (100), free fatty acids and glycerides (56), nucleotides (60), as well as other metabolites (482). The differential metabolite and biomarker analyses suggested that, with an increasing altitude: (1) the shikimic acid-phenylalanine-phenylpropanoids-flavonoids pathway was enhanced, with phenylpropanoids upregulating biomarkers much more than flavonoids; phenylpropanes and phenylmethanes upregulated, and phenylethanes downregulated; the upregulation of quercetin was especially significant in flavonoids; upregulation of condensed tannins and downregulation of hydrolyzed tannins; upregulation of shikimic acids and amino acids including phenylalanine. (2) significant upregulation of free fatty acids and downregulation of glycerides; and (3) upregulation of adenosine phosphates. Our findings provide new insights on the responses of Rhodiola crenulata to extreme high altitude adversity.

A homogeneous polysaccharide from Lycium barbarum: Structural characterizations, anti-obesity effects and impacts on gut microbiota.

Lycium barbarum polysaccharides (LBPs) are known for their beneficial effects on diabetes, NAFLD and related chronic metabolic diseases induced by high-fat diet (HFD). However, the relevant researches are mainly about the whole crude polysaccharides, the specific active ingredient of LBPs and its bioactivity have been rarely explored. Herein, a homogeneous polysaccharide (LBP-W) was isolated and purified from crude LBPs. Structure characterizations indicated that LBP-W contained a main chain consisting of a repeated unit of →6)-ß-Galp(1 â†’ residues with branches composed of α-Araf, ß-Galp and α-Rhap residues at position C-3. The objective of this study was to evaluate the anti-obesogenic effect of LBP-W and figure out the underlying mechanisms. In vivo efficacy trial illustrated that LBP-W supplements can alleviate HFD-induced mice obesity significantly. Gut microbiota analysis showed that LBP-W not only improved community diversity of intestinal flora, but also regulated their specific genera. Moreover, LBP-W can increase the content of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), a metabolite of the intestinal flora. In summary, all these results demonstrated that the homogeneous polysaccharide purified from L. barbarum could be used as a prebiotic agent to improve obesity by modulating the composition of intestinal flora and the metabolism of SCFAs.

Enrichment of total flavones and licochalcone A from licorice residues and its hypoglycemic activity.

Industrial processing of glycyrrhizic leads to a lot of residues which are usually threw away randomly or used as feed. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to study licorice residues as a source of bioactive compounds with potentially applications. In this study, the enrichment and purification of total flavones from the licorice residues was achieved by using macroporous resins. The performances and separation characteristics of four selected macroporous resins with different chemical and physical properties were investigated. HPD-100 resin was the most effective, the content of total flavones increased from 50.94% in the original extract to 82.98% in the 80% ethanol fraction (a 1.63-fold increase). Further purification treatment by polyamide resin, licochalcone A with a purity of 80.28% was obtained in a 45% ethanol fraction, and a higher purity (>85%) of licochalcone A can be obtained by single crystallization operation. And hypoglycemic effect of the total flavones from licorice residues on high fat diet and STZ induced diabetic c57 mice was preliminary investigated. The results showed: the fasting blood glucose of mice in the low and medium dose total flavones group decreased significantly. The proposed technique is uncomplicated, easily managed, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly and is proper for both large-scale licorice residues application and waste management.

A new homoisoflavone from Portulaca oleracea L. and its antioxidant activity.

A new compound was identified as 3-(2-hydroxybenzyl)-5,7-dimethoxy-4H-chromen-4-one (or 2'-dihydroxy-5,7-dimethoxy-homoisoflavone), oleracone F (1), together with p-hydroxy ethyl cinnamate (2) and 4-hydroxy-3-methoxy ethyl cinnamate (3) isolated from the Portulaca oleracea L. for the first time and six known compounds, salicylic acid (4), ß-carboline-3-carboxylic acid (5), aurantiamide (6), portulacanone A (7), B (8) and C (9). Their structures were determined using spectroscopic methods, including one- and two-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance and high-resolution electrospray ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Notably, oleracone F (1) presented scavenging activity in 1,1-diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl (DPPH) radical quenching assay, with IC50 value of 17.78 µM.

[Analysis of ancient literature on baliao points for pelvic floor diseases].

The relationship between baliao points and pelvis floor diseases was explored based on the ancient literature review on these acupoints' targeted diseases. It is considered that baliao points are applied to treat various pelvis floor diseases and symptoms of different systems. Each point has similar function but with unique feature. Shangliao (BL 31) is mainly used to treat gynecologic diseases;Ciliao (BL 32) and Zhongliao (BL 33),urologic system and reproductive system diseases;Zhongliao (BL 33) and Xialiao (BL 34),reproductive system and anorectal system diseases.

The Effectiveness of Electroacupuncture for Functional Constipation: A Randomized, Controlled, Clinical Trial.

Background. Electroacupuncture (EA) has been reported to treat functional constipation (FC). The aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy and safety of EA with different needle insertion method for FC. Methods. Sixty-seven participants were randomly assigned to control (EA with shallow puncture) and EA (with deep puncture) groups. Every patient received 5 treatments per week in the first two weeks, then 3 treatments per week during the following six weeks. Complete spontaneous bowel movements (CSBM), spontaneous bowel movements (SBM), Bristol stool scores (BSS), and Patient Assessment of Constipation Quality of Life (PAC-QOL) were assessed. Results. Both shallow and deep EA significantly increased CSBM frequency compared to the baseline. CSBM was increased from 0.50 ± 0.59/wk to 2.00 ± 1.67/wk with deep EA and from 0.48 ± 0.59/wk to 1.33 ± 1.09/wk with shallow EA (P < 0.05, resp.). Similar finding was noted in SBM. Deep EA was more potent than shallow EA (P < 0.05) during the treatment period. No difference was found on BSS and PAC-QOL between two groups. Conclusion. It is effective and safe with EA to treat FC. Studies with large sample size and long-term observation are needed for further investigation.

Icariin delivery porous PHBV scaffolds for promoting osteoblast expansion in vitro.

How cells could proliferate quickly and maintain their biological activity by using appropriate scaffolds remains a big challenge for tissue engineering. By integrating icariin, a bioactive ingredient of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) Epimedii herba, with PHBV scaffolds, novel icariin delivery porous PHBV scaffolds (IDPPSs) were fabricated with a combination of the solvent casting and salt leaching techniques. IDPPSs displayed a high porosity, 88.80%, and appropriate mechanical properties which were required for 3-D cell culture. IDPPSs significantly promoted the proliferation of human osteoblast-like MG-63 cells and the pre-osteoblast MC3T3-E1 cells, while IDPPSs containing 0.1% icariin (wt.%) showed the highest effect compared with other samples. Although IDPPSs continuously released icariin to the solution in 28 days, cells attached to IDPPSs received an enhanced growth stimulation compared with which were not physically in contact with IDPPSs. Up-regulated transcription of growth factor genes and extracellular matrix genes, including BMP2, BMP6, BMP7 and BGN, was observed in IDPPS-cultured MG-63 cells, illustrating that enhanced cellular proliferation results from alteration of gene transcription. These results implied the potential commercial use of IDPPSs in tissue engineering.