Rapid identification and global characterization of multiple constituents from the essential oil of Cortex Dictamni based on GC-MS.

The root of Dictamnus dasycarpus Turcz., also known as Cortex Dictamni, is a Chinese herbal medicine that has been commonly used in the treatment of inflammation, microbial infection, cancer, and other diseases in China for thousands of years. Recently, the essential oil of Cortex Dictamni has been widely studied, and a large number of volatile constituents have been discovered. However, the research of the essential oil of Cortex Dictamni in vivo remains unknown, especially the constituents absorbed into blood after oral administration. Hence, a sensitive and rapid method using gas chromatography with mass spectrometry combined with MassHunter software and the National Institute of Standards and Technology 2014 database was used to investigate the absorbed components in rat serum after oral administration of the essential oil of Cortex Dictamni. With the established method, a total of 36 compounds were screened and identified in the essential oil of Cortex Dictamni based on the mass spectrometry data and compound database. Among them, eight compounds, elemol, thymol methyl ether, ß-eudesmol, ß-cyclocostunolid, guaiazulene, trans-4-hydroxystilbene, ethyl oleate, and monoelaidin, were tentatively characterized in rat serum. This work demonstrated that the established method proved to be a powerful technique for rapid, simple, reliable, and automated identification of bioactive components of herbal medicine.

Development of matrix solid-phase dispersion coupled with high-performance liquid chromatography for determination of jolkinolide A and jolkinolide B in Euphorbia fischeriana Steud.

A novel and simple method was established for the extraction and determination of jolkinolide A and B in Euphorbia fischeriana Steud. using matrix solid-phase dispersion (MSPD) extraction and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The optimised conditions for the MSPD extraction were determined to be that silica gel was served as dispersant, the mass ratio of sample to silica gel was selected to be 1:4, and 5 mL of acetonitrile was used as elution solvent. The method exhibited a good performance in terms of linearity (r2 ≥ 0.9997) and the limits of detection in the range of 0.052-0.065 µg mL-1. The recoveries were in the range of 90.2-98.9% with relative standard deviations (RSDs) ranging from 1.3 to 3.5%. The extraction efficiencies obtained by the MSPD were higher than other extraction method with less cost of sample and solvent. At last, the optimised method was applied for analysing real samples.

Genetic susceptibility of eight nonsynonymous polymorphisms in HLA-DRB1 gene to hepatocellular carcinoma in Han Chinese.

Backgrounds and Objective: Mounting evidence suggests that human leukocyte antigen (HLA) plays a central role in anti-virus and tumor defense. To test whether genetic variation in HLA-DRB1 gene, a key component of HLA system, can predict its predisposition to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), we thereby conducted an association study by genotyping 8 nonsynonymous polymorphisms in HLA-DRB1 gene among 257 HCC patients and 264 controls. RESULTS: All polymorphisms respected the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. The genotypes and alleles of rs17879599 differed significantly between patients and controls after Bonferroni correction (both P < 0.001), and the power to detect this significance was 94.4%. After adjusting for age, gender, smoking, drinking and hepatitis infection, the mutant allele of rs17879702 was significantly associated with an increased risk for HCC under additive (odds ratio [OR] = 2.12, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.20-4.02, P = 0.004) and dominant (OR = 2.51, 95% CI: 1.39-2.96, P = 0.004) models. Haplotype analysis indicated that haplotype A-T-C-T-G-C-T-A (alleles ordered by rs199514452, rs201540428, rs201614260, rs17879702, rs17880292, rs17879599, rs17424145 and rs35445101) was overrepresented in patients and enhanced predisposition to HCC (adjusted OR = 2.72, 95% CI: 1.24-5.78, P = 0.004). In cumulative analysis, carriers of 7-9 unfavorable alleles had a 2.41-fold (95% CI: 1.18-4.92, P = 0.016) increased risk for HCC after adjusting for confounding factors relative to those possessing 4 or less unfavorable alleles. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Genotypes were determined by ligase detection reaction. HCC patients were newly diagnosed, histopathologically confirmed or previously untreated and controls were cancer-free. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest an independent leading contribution of rs17879599 in the 2nd exon of HLA-DRB1 gene to HCC risk in Han Chinese.