The past and future of ecosystem restoration in China.

For decades, China has implemented restoration programs on a large scale, thanks to its capacity to set policy and mobilize funding resources. An understanding of China's restoration achievements and remaining challenges will help to guide future efforts to restore 30% of its diverse ecosystems under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. Here we summarize the major transitions in China's approach to ecosystem restoration since the 1970s, with a focus on the underlying motivations for restoration, approaches to ecosystem management, and financing mechanisms. Whereas China's restoration efforts were predominantly guided by the delivery of certain ecosystem functions and services in earlier decades, more recently it has come to emphasize the restoration of biodiversity and ecosystem integrity. Accordingly, the focal ecosystems, approaches, and financing mechanisms of restoration have also been considerably diversified. This evolution is largely guided by the accumulation of scientific evidence and past experiences. We highlight the key challenges facing China's restoration efforts and propose future directions to improve restoration effectiveness, with regard to goal setting, monitoring, stakeholder involvement, adaptive management, resilience under climate change, and financing.

BODIPY-Based NIR Trackers with Acidity-Driven Amphiphilicity for STED Super-Resolution Imaging of Lysosomal Membranes.

Although super-resolution imaging provides a great opportunity to disclose the structures of living cells at the nanoscale level, resolving the structural details of organelles is highly dependent on the targeting accuracy and photophysical properties of fluorescence trackers. Herein, we report a series of ultrabright and photostable trackers of lysosomal membranes for super-resolution imaging using stimulated emission depletion microscopy (STED). These trackers are composed of lipophilic NIR BODIPY derivatives and ionizable tertiary amines. This structural feature enables accurate targeting of the lysosomal membrane through the formation of transient amphiphilicity driven by the acidity in the lysosome. As a representative, Lyso-700 is applied for STED-based super-resolution imaging of the lysosomal membrane of living macrophages. By use of Lyso-700, the interaction details between lysosomes of macrophages and fungi are visualized. Overall, these trackers display great potential as advanced lysosome trackers and merit further evaluation for lysosome-related studies.

Declining coupling between vegetation and drought over the past three decades.

Droughts have been implicated as the main driver behind recent vegetation die-off and are projected to drive greater mortality under future climate change. Understanding the coupling relationship between vegetation and drought has been of great global interest. Currently, the coupling relationship between vegetation and drought is mainly evaluated by correlation coefficients or regression slopes. However, the optimal drought timescale of vegetation response to drought, as a key indicator reflecting vegetation sensitivity to drought, has largely been ignored. Here, we apply the optimal drought timescale identification method to examine the change in coupling between vegetation and drought over the past three decades (1982-2015) with long-term satellite-derived Normalized Difference Vegetation Index and Standardized Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index data. We find substantial increasing response of vegetation to drought timescales globally, and the correlation coefficient between vegetation and drought under optimal drought timescale overall declines between 1982 and 2015. This decrease in vegetation-drought coupling is mainly observed in regions with water deficit, although its initial correlation is relatively high. However, vegetation in water-surplus regions, with low coupling in earlier stages, is prone to show an increasing trend. The observed changes may be driven by the increasing trend of atmospheric CO2 . Our findings highlight more pressing drought risk in water-surplus regions than in water-deficit regions, which advances our understanding of the long-term vegetation-drought relationship and provides essential insights for mapping future vegetation sensitivity to drought under changing climate conditions.

Synergy of Pd2+/S2--Doped TiO2 Supported on 2-Methylimidazolium-Functionalized Polypyrrole/Graphene Oxide for Enhanced Nitrogen Electrooxidation.

The electrosynthesis of nitrate catalyzed by electrochemical nitrogen oxidation reaction (NOR) is considered as an alternative and sustainable approach to the conventional industrial manufacture, but optimizing the electrocatalytic NOR performance and fabricating the efficient NOR electrocatalysts at the design level still encounter great challenges. Herein, unique Pd2+- and S2--doped TiO2 (Pb/S-TiO2) nanoparticles are successfully in situ grown on the surface of 2-methylimidazolium-functionalized polypyrrole/graphene oxide (2-MeIm/PPy/GO), which present the typical hierarchical micro-nanostructures, resulting in the excellent electrocatalytic NOR performance with the highest NO3 - yield of 72.69 µg h-1 mg-1 act. and the maximum Faraday efficiency of 8.92% at 2.04 V (vs reversible hydrogen electrode) due to the synergistic effect of each component. Due to the doping effect, the appropriate oxygen evolution reaction (OER) activity is achieved by Ti-site, where OER principally occurs, providing *O during the non-electrochemical step of NOR, while the electrocatalytic NOR process as the electrochemical conversion of inert N2 to active *NO intermediates mainly occurs at the Pd-site. Especially, the sulfate radicals in situ formed on Pb/S-TiO2@2-MeIm/PPy/GO further promote nitrogen adsorption and decrease the reaction energy barrier, resulting in the acceleration of NOR. It provides theoretical and practical experience for the design and preparation of NOR electrocatalysts.

Photocorrosion-Based BiOCl Photothermal Materials for Synergistic Solar-Driven Desalination and Photoelectrochemistry Energy Storage and Release.

Solar-driven interfacial evaporation is one of the most promising desalination technologies. However, few studies have effectively combined energy storage with evaporation processes. Here, a novel multifunctional interfacial evaporator, calcium alginate hydrogel/bismuth oxychloride/carbon black (HBiC), is designed, which integrates the characteristics of interfacial evaporation and direct photoelectric conversion. Under illumination, the Bi nanoparticles which were produced by photoetching of BiOCl and its reaction heat are simultaneously used for the heating of water molecules. Meanwhile, part of the solar energy is converted into chemical energy through the photocorrosion reaction and stored in HBiC. At night, Bi NPs undergo autooxidation reaction and an electric current is generated during this process (like a metal-air battery), in which the maximum current density is more than 15 µA cm-2. This scientific design cleverly combines desalination with power generation and provides a new development direction for energy collection and storage.

Genipin improves lipid metabolism and sperm parametersin obese mice via regulation of miR-132 expression.

Obesity has now surpassed malnutrition and infectious diseases as the most significant contributor to health problems worldwide. In particular, obesity is associated with several metabolic disorders, including hyperlipidemia, hepatic steatosis, and subfertility. Genipin (GNP), the aglycone of geniposide, is isolated from the extract of the traditional Chinese medicine Gardenia jasminoides Ellis and has been used in traditional oriental medicine against several inflammation-driven diseases. However, the effect and molecular mechanism of GNP on obesity-associated dyslipidemia and sperm dysfunction still need to be explored. In this study, we detect the effects of GNP on hyperlipidemia, hepatic lipid accumulation and sperm function using a high-fat diet (HFD)-induced obese mouse model. We find that obese mice treated with GNP show an improvement in body weight, serum triglyceride levels, serum hormone levels, serum inflammatory cytokines, hepatic steatosis and sperm function. At the molecular level, HFD/GNP diversely regulates the expression of miR-132 in a tissue-specific manner. miR-132 further targets and regulates the expression of SREBP-1c in liver cells, as well as the expressions of SREBP-1c and StAR in Leydig cells in the testis, thus modifying lipogenesis and steroidogenesis, respectively. Collectively, our data demonstrate that GNP shows a broad effect on the improvement of HFD-induced metabolic disorder and sperm dysfunction in male mice by tissue-specific regulation of miR-132. Our findings reveal the function GNP in ameliorating hepatic lipid metabolism and sperm function and suggest that this compound is a versatile drug to treat metabolic disorders.

Non-linear effects of natural and anthropogenic drivers on ecosystem services: Integrating thresholds into conservation planning.

Ecosystem services (ESs) have been widely used for ecological protection and land spatial planning. Natural and anthropogenic drivers exhibit a strong dynamic coupling relationship with ESs. However, current ESs-related research focused on mapping the ESs spatially or investing the trade-offs and synergies relationship between ES, ignoring the nonlinear response of ESs to natural and anthropogenic drivers. Here we aimed to investigate the nonlinear effect of 14 potential drivers (8 natural and 6 anthropogenic) on the total value of six typical ESs (ESV). Taking Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration (BTH) in China as an example, we established 14 constrain lines and identified critical thresholds through the restricted cubic splines (RCS) regression. We found strong non-linear impacts of natural and anthropogenic drivers on ESV and critical thresholds existed among all the 14 constrain lines. The RCS plots showed that the overall ESV was kept at a high level before or after certain thresholds (e.g., altitude >687 m, slope >13.4°, NDVI >0.7, distance from water <31.2 km, etc.). We categorized these threshold combinations and found the potentially high ES delivery areas were mainly distributed in the Yanshan Mountian, accounting for approximately 5% of the total BTH region. These critical thresholds offer a new method to delineate conservation and restoration priority areas.

A critical review of Gross ecosystem product accounting in China: Status quo, problems and future directions.

As a measure of ecosystems' contribution to human well-being, the concept of Gross Ecosystem Product (GEP) is an integrated monetary index for the evaluation of final ecosystem services, which has attracted widespread attention around the world. In China, both national and local governments have launched a series of GEP accounting pilot projects, with the aim to incorporate this new concept into real world decision-making. However, a critical review of these practices remains lacking, especially regarding their current status and problems. In this study, by performing a systematic review and data integration of current literature and government documents, we comprehensively described the GEP accounting practices in China, including pilot project's coverage, accounting methods, and policy application. Then, we identified five major problems in current GEP accounting practices in China, which prevent GEP from being accurately measured in the short term. We proposed that GEP accounting should be a constantly evolving process with both long-term and short-term improvement goals. More in detail, the accuracy issues in GEP accounting require longer periods of time to resolve; while its repeatability, comparability, and applicability should be improved in the short term, so that it can be incorporated into decision-making. In response to these challenges, we suggested the adaptation of GEP accounting index screening principles as a possible future direction, which can help to apply GEP results in the current stages of decision making. By improving GEP concept and accounting, it will be possible to establish a unified comparable GEP accounting system and reduce the gap between the GEP and decision-making.

Polarity-Sensitive and Membrane-Specific Probe Quantitatively Monitoring Ferroptosis through Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging.

As a new form of regulated cell death, ferroptosis is closely related to various diseases. To interpret this biological behavior and monitor related pathological processes, it is necessary to develop appropriate detection strategies and tools. Considering that ferroptosis is featured with remarkable lipid peroxidation of various cell membranes, it is logical to detect membranes' structural and environmental changes for the direct assessment of ferroptosis. For this sake, we designed novel polarity-sensitive fluorescent probes Mem-C1C18 and Mem-C18C18, which have superior plasma membrane anchorage, high brightness, and sensitive responses to environmental polarity by changing their fluorescence lifetimes. Mem-C1C18 with much less tendency to aggregate than Mem-C18C18 outperformed the latter in high resolution fluorescence labeling of artificial vesicle membranes and plasma membranes of live cells. Thus, Mem-C1C18 was selected to monitor plasma membranes damaged along ferroptosis process for the first time, in combination with the technique of fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM). After treating HeLa cells with Erastin, a typical ferroptosis inducer, the mean fluorescence lifetime of Mem-C1C18 displayed a considerable increase from 3.00 to 4.93 ns, with a 64% increase (corresponding to the polarity parameter Δf increased from 0.213 to 0.232). Therefore, our idea to utilize a probe to quantitate the changes in polarity of plasma membranes proves to be an effective method in the evaluation of the ferroptosis process.

Asymmetric ultrathin silica nanonets as a super-performance emulsifier.

HYPOTHESIS: Pickering emulsions have been used in many fields such as catalytic synthesis, pharmaceutics and oilfield chemicals. They usually have good stability, but in some extreme conditions such as at high temperatures or in special liquid-liquid systems, poor stability is often encountered. EXPERIMENTS: Herein, ultrathin silica nanosheets with controllable morphologies were synthesized via a simple interfacial anisotropic self-assembly approach integrated with pore-forming techniques. By regulating the size, density and pattern of the apertures, three types of unique nanosheets including mesoporous nanosheets, meso/macroporous topology-nanosheets and asymmetric nanonets with hollows were obtained. FINDINGS: After a simple hydrophobic modification, the nanonets exhibited super-performance as particulate emulsifiers, owing to their two-dimensional (2D) structures of large pore volume and hierarchical pore/hollow arrangements. As a result, those silica nanonets can stabilize various emulsion systems at considerably high temperatures that are difficult to be stabilized by conventional particulate emulsifiers even at a dose of 100x higher. This work paves a promising way to develop novel 2D asymmetric nanomaterials with tunable compositions, aperture parameters and morphologies for emulsification and potential applications.

A sensitive cholesterol electrochemical biosensor based on biomimetic cerasome and graphene quantum dots.

A simple and sensitive electrochemical cholesterol biosensor was fabricated based on ceramic-coated liposome (cerasome) and graphene quantum dots (GQDs) with good conductivity. The cerasome consists of a lipid-bilayer membrane and a ceramic surface as a soft biomimetic interface, and the mild layer-by-layer self-assembled method as the immobilization strategy on the surface of the modified electrode was used, which can provide good biocompatibility to maintain the biological activity of cholesterol oxidase (ChOx). The GQDs promoted electron transport between the enzyme and the electrode more effectively. The structure of the cerasome-forming lipid was characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR). The morphology and characteristics of the cerasome and GQDs were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), zeta potential, photoluminescence spectra (PL), etc. The proposed biosensors revealed excellent catalytic performance to cholesterol with a linear concentration range of 16.0 × 10-6-6.186 × 10-3 mol/L, with a low detection limit (LOD) of 5.0 × 10-6 mol/L. The Michaelis-Menten constant (Km) of ChOx was 5.46 mmol/L, indicating that the immobilized ChOx on the PEI/GQDs/PEI/cerasome-modified electrode has a good affinity to cholesterol. Moreover, the as-fabricated electrochemical biosensor exhibited good stability, anti-interference ability, and practical application for cholesterol detection.

Turning Waste into Wealth: Remotely NIR Light-Controlled Precious Metal Recovery by Covalently Functionalized Black Phosphorus.

It is a great challenge to refine precious metals from e-wastes under mild conditions without hazardous reagents. Herein, black phosphorus (BP) was covalently functionalized with poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) to obtain thermo/near-infrared (NIR)-responsive BP-P for precious metal recovery. Precious metals (Au, Ag, and Pd) with higher redox potentials than BP-P could be efficiently recovered by reduction-driven enrichment. Taking Au as an example, the recovery process presented fast kinetics (<15 min), excellent selectivity, and high efficiency (≈98 %). Remote operation with NIR light could generate heat by BP, which induced the hydrophilic-to-hydrophobic transition of PNIPAM, allowing the spontaneous gathering, facile collection, and practical recycle of BP-P following Au extraction. Thanks to the unique features of BP-P, not only could high-quality Au nanoparticles (20-30 nm) be economically extracted (cost: $0.731-1.222 g-1 Au nanoparticles; 5-6 orders of magnitude lower than the market price), but also the formed BP-P-Au nanocomposites have potential application in hydrogen evolution reaction.

The relationship between urban form and heat island intensity along the urban development gradients.

There is an increasing demand for urban form optimization to mitigate urban heat island (UHI) effect under the background of global climate change and urbanization. However, there is still a lack of understanding about how the relationship between urban form and UHI intensity changes under diverse urbanization contexts. This study aims to show the change patterns of the relationship between urban form and UHI intensity along the urban development gradient based upon the investigation of a total of 150 urban areas in the Jing-Jin-Ji region in China in 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2015. We defined a comprehensive urban development index taking into account the size of urban area, population density and night light intensity to classify the different levels of urban development. A multi-model comparison was carried out to validate the results. We found that the increase in urban continuity, sprawling, scale and density all enhanced UHI effect at the regional scale. However, the relationship between urban form indicators and UHI intensity demonstrated two opposite patterns along the urban development gradient: population density, geometric complexity and continuity, and general vegetation index of a city were found to be increasingly influential, while night light intensity, geometric elongation and forest coverage presented declining influence. Finally, the study obtained an ascending contribution rate curve for urban geometry indicators, a convex curve for urban size indicators and a declining curve for urban vegetation. These changes along the urban development gradient may be closely related to the changes of the microclimate in cities due to land use, social and economic activities in different urban development stages. The findings can contribute to more appropriate and effective urban planning in countries and regions undergoing rapid urbanization as a valuable reference.

Spectroscopy and molecular docking analysis reveal structural specificity of flavonoids in the inhibition of α-glucosidase activity.

The inhibition of α-glucosidase activity is a prospective approach to prevent postprandial hyperglycemia. As two flavonoids extracted from citrus fruits, eriocitrin and eriodictyol have similar structures and show multiple pharmacological activities. In order to investigate the effects of flavonoids structure on enzyme inhibition, spectroscopy and molecular docking analysis were used. Saccharomyces cerevisiae α-glucosidase (GH13) was used for studying the inhibitory mechanism by multi-spectroscopic analysis. Results indicated that they could quench the intrinsic fluorescence of α-glucosidase, the binding constants at 298 K were (7.02 ± 0.22) × 104 and (4.57 ± 0.16) × 104 L mol-1, respectively. The interaction between them with α-glucosidase were mainly driven by hydrophobic interaction, they induced conformational changes of α-glucosidase. The human α-glucosidase (C-terminal maltase-glucoamylase, GH31) was used in the molecular docking analysis to determine the interaction of eriocitrin and eriodictyol with the α-glucosidase. The results revealed that they could bind with α-glucosidase and might cause the decrease of α-glucosidase activity. The inhibitory effect of eriocitrin was stronger than that of eriodictyol, which might be due to the position and amount of hydroxyl groups. This work confirmed two novel α-glucosidase inhibitors and provided the structure-function relationship of flavonoids in inhibition of α-glucosidase activity.

Ultrathin NiS/Ni(OH)2 Nanosheets Filled within Ammonium Polyacrylate-Functionalized Polypyrrole Nanotubes as an Unique Nanoconfined System for Nonenzymatic Glucose Sensors.

Ultrathin two-dimensional NiS/Ni(OH)2 nanosheets (NiS/Ni(OH)2 NSs) were successfully filled within the hollow interiors of ammonium polyacrylate-functionalized polypyrrole nanotubes (NH4PA/PPyNTs) by a simple solvothermal method. This kind of novel hierarchical nanostructures with typical structural features of a nanoconfined system, denoted by NiS/Ni(OH)2/NH4PA/PPyNTs, were prepared by two main sections: polyacrylic acid (PAA) was first polymerized on PPyNTs containing vinyl groups, and the obtained PAA/PPyNTs exhibited a typical Janus structure, whose external surface was covered with carboxyl groups and the internal surface was still covered with PPy chains; second, Ni2+ ions as a precursor were facilely combined with -NH- segments in PPy chains by the coordination interaction under the solvothermal environment; therefore, NiS/Ni(OH)2 NSs (<1 nm) were well distributed on the internal surface of NH4PA/PPyNTs by the in situ growth. Because of the synergistic effects of ionizable NH4PA, PPy with good conductivity, NiS and Ni(OH)2 with electrocatalytical activity, as well as the nanoconfinement effect, the obtained NiS/Ni(OH)2@NH4PA/PPyNTs exhibited excellent electrocatalytic performance for detecting glucose. Sufficiently thin shells composed of ionizable NH4PA and good conductive PPyNTs can not only promote the electronic transmission effectively during the electrochemical detection of glucose but also hardly limit the transport of glucose and products. In addition, ultrathin NiS/Ni(OH)2 NSs may further enhance the electrocatalytic performance for glucose because of the more exposed active sites with the large surface area. Therefore, NiS/Ni(OH)2@NH4PA/PPyNTs can be applied as a good electrode material with stability and sensitivity for building a nonenzymatic glucose sensor.

The ultrasound thermal cracking for the tar-sand bitumen.

The influence of ultrasonic irradiation on the tar-sand bitumen in the process of thermal cracking with an inert atmosphere was investigated thoroughly. The product distribution and coke characteristic produced by the conventional thermal cracking (CTC) and ultrasound thermal cracking (UTC) were invested at the following condition: ultrasound frequency 20 kHz, ultrasonic power 2000 W, reaction time 2 h, reaction temperature from 400 to 440 °C. The result of the liquid products distribution indicated that UTC can significantly increase gasoline yield and diesel yield, and dramatically reduce VGO (Vacuum Gas Oil) yield and residuum (greater than 500 °C) yield. The analysis of gas products showed that there were no significant differences for the gas distribution between the two reactions (methods), indicating that reaction of UTC still conformed to a radical chain mechanism, but the ratio of olefin/paraffin was greatly reduced in the process of UTC, which was attributed to the hydrogen transfer reaction promoted by ultrasound. The result of the analysis by SEM, FT-IR, Raman, XRD and Zeta potential demonstrated that there was a significant difference for the morphology of cokes produced by the two methods. Mesocarbon microbeads (MCMB) was discovered in the process of UTC, which should be due to that the polymerization of the free macro-radicals produced from PAHs (Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons) promoted by ultrasonic cavitation. In addition, it can be inferred that the viscosity of the second liquid phase was reduced by ultrasonic mechanical function through the breakage of the stack of asphaltene molecules cross-linked by van der Waals force. According to the mesophase theory, the ultrasound irradiation promoted the formation of the second liquid phase, extended its existence time and reduced its viscosity, resulting in the formation of MCMB controlled by the surface tension during the process of UTC.

Vulnerability of the global terrestrial ecosystems to climate change.

Climate change has far-reaching impacts on ecosystems. Recent attempts to quantify such impacts focus on measuring exposure to climate change but largely ignore ecosystem resistance and resilience, which may also affect the vulnerability outcomes. In this study, the relative vulnerability of global terrestrial ecosystems to short-term climate variability was assessed by simultaneously integrating exposure, sensitivity, and resilience at a high spatial resolution (0.05°). The results show that vulnerable areas are currently distributed primarily in plains. Responses to climate change vary among ecosystems and deserts and xeric shrublands are the most vulnerable biomes. Global vulnerability patterns are determined largely by exposure, while ecosystem sensitivity and resilience may exacerbate or alleviate external climate pressures at local scales; there is a highly significant negative correlation between exposure and sensitivity. Globally, 61.31% of the terrestrial vegetated area is capable of mitigating climate change impacts and those areas are concentrated in polar regions, boreal forests, tropical rainforests, and intact forests. Under current sensitivity and resilience conditions, vulnerable areas are projected to develop in high Northern Hemisphere latitudes in the future. The results suggest that integrating all three aspects of vulnerability (exposure, sensitivity, and resilience) may offer more comprehensive and spatially explicit adaptation strategies to reduce the impacts of climate change on terrestrial ecosystems.

Water memory effects and their impacts on global vegetation productivity and resilience.

Memory effects refer to the impacts of antecedent climate conditions on current vegetation productivity. This temporal linkage has been found to be strong in arid and semi-arid regions. However, the dominant climatic factors that determine such patterns are still unclear. Here, we defined'water-memory effects' as the persistent effects of antecedent precipitation on the vegetation productivity for a given memory length (from 1 to up to 12 months). Based on satellite observations and climate data, we quantified the length of water-memory effects and evaluated the contributions of antecedent precipitation on current vegetation. Our results showed that vegetation productivity was highly dependent on antecedent precipitation in arid and semi-arid regions. The average length of water memory was approximately 5.6 months. Globally, water-memory effects could explain the geographical pattern and strength of memory effects, indicating that precipitation might be the dominant climatic factor determining memory effects because of its impact on water availability. Moreover, our results showed vegetation in regions with low mean annual precipitation or a longer water memory has lower engineering resilience (i.e. slower recovery rate) to disturbances. These findings will enable better assessment of memory effects and improve our understanding of the vulnerability of vegetation to climate change.

Reduced graphene oxide-supported methylene blue nanocomposite as a glucose oxidase-mimetic for electrochemical glucose sensing.

In this paper, a hybrid nanocomposite (MB-rGO) was synthesized based on the π-π stacking interactions between methylene blue (MB) and reduced graphene oxide (rGO). The as-synthesized nanocomposite was characterized by SEM, TEM, XRD, FTIR, UV-vis and XPS spectra. UV-vis spectroscopy and electrochemical tests suggested the MB-rGO modified on the electrode exhibited glucose oxidase-mimetic catalytic activity towards glucose, and displayed excellent electrocatalytic performance for electrochemical detection of glucose with a wide linear range from 1.04 to 17.44 mM, a low detection limit of 45.8 µM and a large sensitivity of 13.08 µA mM-1 cm-2. The proposed glucose sensor also showed high stability, reproducibility and good abilities of anti-interference to dopamine, ascorbic acid and uric acid. Moreover, the modified electrode was used to determine glucose concentration in human blood serum samples with satisfactory results.

[Varieties textual research, resource investigation and identification of commercial drugs on Cuscutae Semen].

Through the textual research, resource investigation, literature reviews (including Flora of China, municipal Flora, pharmacopoeia of China and municipal drug standards) and identification of commercial drugs on Cuscutae Semen, it was found the species described in the herbal textual was Cuscuta chinensis, with good quality from Shandong and Henan Province. The identification of commodities showed the majority drugs were from C. australis, varied from the ancient herbal textuals .Mordern literature reviews indicate that it was necessary to strengthen the research on Cuscutae Semen from C. australis, C. chinensis and C. japonica because of their differences in resources, macroscopical and microscopical characters, while wrong descriptions in some literatures. It was suggested that the two species (C. australis and C. chinensis) should be separated in pharmacopoeia of China. The study provides scientific basis for the development and utilization of Cuscutae Semen.