Highly efficient inhibition of spring viraemia of carp virus replication in vitro mediated by bavachin, a major constituent of psoralea corlifonia Lynn.

As one of nine piscine viruses recognized by the International Office of Epizootics, spring viraemia of carp virus (SVCV) is an important pathogen bringing high mortality to cyprinids. Up to now, there is no approved therapy on SVCV, making them strong public health threat in aquaculture. In this study, the anti-SVCV activities of 12 plant crude extracts were investigated by using epithelioma papulosum cyprini (EPC) cells. Among these plants, Psoralea corylifolia Linn. showed the highest inhibition on SVCV replication, with an inhibitory percentage of 67.98%. Further studies demonstrated that bavachin (BVN), one of the major constituents of Psoralea corylifolia Linn., was also highly effective to SVCV infection. The half maximal inhibitory concentrations (IC50) of BVN on SVCV glycoprotein and nucleoprotein expression were 0.46 (0.29-0.73) and 0.31 (0.13-0.55) mg/L, respectively. In addition, SVCV-induced apoptosis which may be negative to SVCV replication was inhibited by BVN. The apoptotic cells were decreased 21.42% for BVN compared with SVCV group. These results indicated that the inhibition of BVN on SVCV replication was, in some extent, via blocking SVCV induced apoptosis. Furthermore, cellular morphological damage induced by SVCV was also blocked by BVN treatment. Mechanistically, BVN did not affect SVCV infectivity and cannot be used for prevention of SVCV infection. Time-of-addition and viral binding assays revealed that BVN mainly inhibited the early events of SVCV replication but did not interfere with SVCV adsorption. In conclusion, BVN was considered to develop as a promising agent to treat SVCV infection.

Study on correlation between Atractylodes macrocephala viability and germination rate / 中国中药杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To screen the optimized methods for detection seed viability and germination rate determination of Atractylodes macrocephala, and determine the relationship between seed viability and germination rate.</p><p><b>METHOD</b>There were four methods, which including 2,3,5-triphynel tetrazolilum chloride (TTC) staining, red ink staining, BTB staining and Nongjia method, to evaluate the 12 A. macrocephala local varieties'seed viability and measure their germination rate.</p><p><b>RESULT</b>Seed viability of A. macrocephala using TTC staining ranked the first compared to that of other three methods. Seed viability was significantly related with germination rate using TTC method. Their correlation coefficient reached 0.915 and regression equation was also found out between seed viability (X) and germination rate (Y), which was Y = -0.083 4 + 0.995 4X.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>TTC staining was the optimal method to determine A. macrocephala seed vitality. Furthermore, seed viability was significant related with germination rate of A. macrocephala.</p>