Specific information on geographic distribution of a species is important for its conservation. This study was conducted to determine the potential geographic distribution of Alhagi sparsifolia, which is a plant used in traditional Uighur medicine, and predict how climate change would affect its geographic range. The potential geographic distribution of A. sparsifolia under the current conditions in China was simulated with MaxEnt software based on species presence data at 42 locations and 19 climatic variables. The future distributions of A. sparsifolia were also projected in 2050 and 2070 under the climate change scenarios of RCP2.6 and RCP8.5 described in 5th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).The result showed that mean temperature of the coldest quarter, annual mean temperature, precipitation of the coldest quarter, annual precipitation, precipitation of the wettest month, mean temperature of the wettest quarter and the temperature annual range were the seven climatic factors influencing the geographic distribution of A. sparsifolia under current climate, the suitable habitats are mainly located in the Xinjiang, in the middle and north of Gansu, in the west of Neimeng, in the north of Nei Monggol. From 2050 to 2070, the model simulations indicated that the suitable habitats of A. sparsifolia would decrease under the climate change scenarios of RCP2.6 and scenarios of RCP8.5 on the whole.

Continuous cropping obstacles resulted in the yield losses of Panax ginseng, and affected the development of ginseng industry. Soil fungal communities participated in the key ecological process, and their changes of diversity and composition were related to the continuous cropping obstacles. We analyzed the changes of fungal diversity and composition in the rhizosphere of ginseng using the high-throughput sequencing method, stated the effects of ginseng cultivation on the micro-ecology, and provided effective strategies for overcoming continuous cropping obstacles. Compared to those of the forest soils, the fungal diversity of ginseng rhizosphere soils was increased, and the increasing trends were declined with an increasing years of ginseng cultivation; the relative abundance of Sordariomycetes, Alatospora, Eurotiomycetes, Leotiomycetes, Saccharomycetes, Mucorales and Pezizomycetes were increased in the rhizosphere of ginseng. Pearson's correlation index indicated that soil chemical perporties affected the relative abundance of fungal communities. pH was significantly related to the relative abundance of Dothideomycetes and Alatospora; the content of available potassium was markedly associated with the relative abundance of Dothideomycetes, Alatospora and Mucorales; the content of total nitrogen was significant correlation with the relative abundance of Sordariomycetes and Mucorales. These results indicated that fertilization was one of pivotal factors affecting the rhizosphere micro-ecology of ginseng, and optimization of fertilization system was an effective method to overcome continuous cropping obstacles.

Diabetic kidney disease (DKD) is a chronic renal microvascular complication associated with abnormal glucose metabolism, which is an important cause of end stage renal disease. Diabetes can damage the kidney through many ways, including renal vascular, glomerular, tubular, and renal interstitial damages. Therefore, a comprehensive treatment process must be taken for the treatment of DKD, and the selection of appropriate drugs has important significance in the treatment of DKD. Berberine has significant curative effect in the treatment of DKD, and the mechanism is related to the reduction of blood sugar, improvement of renal hemodynamics abnormality, regulation of blood lipid profile and the attenuation of systemic and local inflammation.

Cycloartenol, a phytosterol compound, also one of the key precusor substances for biosynthesis of numerous sterol compounds, has a variety of pharmacological activities such as anti-inflammatory, anti-tumor, antioxidant, antibiosis and anti-alzheimer's disease. Furthermore, cycloartenol also plays an important role in the process of plant growth and development. This article reviewed the research progress on cycloartenol pharmacological activity in domestic and foreign articles, and summarized the effect of cycloartenol and "cycloartenol pathway" on the plant growth and development, laying foundation for the its further study, development and utilization.

Uridine 5'-diphosphate-glucuronosyltransferase1A1(UGT1A1) is a major phase Ⅱ metabolism enzyme, responsible for glucuronidation and elimination of drugs and endogenous compounds, playing a vital role in sustaining endogenous metabolism balance. Therefore, changes in UGT1A1 expression/functional can not only cause adverse clinical drug/herbs-drug interactions, but also lead to metabolic disorder of endogenous substances, causing high blood bilirubin, bilirubin encephalopathy and liver injury, as well as other side effects. To date, many studies have found that a variety of clinical medicines and medicinal ingredients can regulate UGT1A1 activity. This article would summarize the advances in research on drug metabolism and toxicology in domestic and foreign literature, and investigate the regulatory effects of different types of traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) ingredients(such as flavonoids, coumarins, alkaloids) on UGT1A1 expression and activity, including inhibitory effect of TCM chemical ingredients on UGT1A1 and effect of TCM chemical ingredients on UGT1A1. It is hoped that this review could provide depth understanding and certain reference for the interaction between chemical ingredients of TCM and UGT1A1, which is of great significance to guide the rational clinical use in future.

The quality evaluation of traditional Chinese medicine can be divided into two aspects, effectiveness and safety. The existing methods for evaluating the quality of traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) are mostly based on the testing instruments, which can not meet the practical needs of simple, rapid and on-site in production and life. Immunoassay, characterized by simple, rapid, sensitive, specific, low-cost and high-throughput, is widely used in the fields of clinical diagnosis, environmental pollution monitoring, food safety testing, and other fields. In recent years, immunoassay technology has been gradually applied in the field of quality control of TCM, involving quantitative detection of effective components of TCM, detection of harmful substances in TCM, and detection of exogenous pollutants in TCM. This paper summarizes the principle of the wide application of ELISA and colloidal gold immunostrip technology and its application in quality evaluation of TCM, this technique has a good application prospect in the field of rapid detection of the quality of TCM. In this paper, the principles of the widely used ELISA and colloidal gold immune test strip technology as well as their application in quality evaluation of TCM were reviewed, and the results showed that this technique had a good application prospect in the field of rapid detection of the quality of TCM.

Although consecutive monoculture problems have been studied for many years, no effective treatments are currently available. The complexity of systems triggered the formation of consecutive monoculture problems was one major cause. This paper elaborated the physiological and ecological mechanisms of consecutive monoculture problem formation based on the interaction relationship among multiple factors presented in the rhizosphere soil of consecutive monoculture plants. At same time, in this paper the multiple interactions among cultivated medicinal plants, autotoxic allelochemicals and rhizosphere microbial were proposed to be most important causes that derived the formation of consecutive monoculture problem. The paper also highlighted the advantage of 'omics' technologies integrating plant functional genomics and metabolomics as well as microbial macro-omics in understanding the multiple factor interaction under a particular ecological environment. Additionally, taking R. glutinosa as an example, the paper reviewed the molecular mechanism for the formation of R. glutinosa consecutive monoculture problem from the perspective of the accumulation of allelopathic autotoxins, the rhizosphere microecology catastrophe and theresponding of consecutive monoculture plants. Simultaneously, the roles of mutilple 'omics' technologies in comprehending these formation mechanism were described in detail. This paper provides finally a new insight to solve systematically the mechanism of consecutive monoculture problem formation on molecular level.

Saffron, a precious spice and a traditional medicinal herb in the international trade market, has attracted much attention about its quality evaluation.Saffron has been successfully cultivated in some areas in China,such as Shanghai, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, but few studies were focused on the quality difference between saffron cultivated in China and in foreign countries, which obstructed the entrance of saffron cultivated in China into international trade market. The paper is to review the current research progress on quality evaluation of saffron from the following respects： the chemical composition, the identification of authenticity and adulterants, the detection of artificial colorants, the indexes and methods of quality evaluation,the quality evaluation of different specifications in the international trade market, and the parameters which affected the quality of saffron.

Based on a systematic review of morphology and distribution of plants, alternate names, actions, and properties of herbs recorded in ancient and modern literatures, in combination of field investigation, 18 Chinese herbal medicines recorded in ancient bencao literature were regarded to be derived from 7 species in the Ardisia genus. Among them, the variety Ardisia crenata f. hortensis was identified as the source of Zhushagen and Zijinniu. A. hanceana is referenced as Tiesan in the illustrated atlas of Botanical Nomenclature (Zhiwu Mingshi Tukao). The name Pingdimu refers to a different substance in the illustrated atlas of Botanical Nomenclature and the Flower Mirror (Huajing). The medicinals named Yedihong, Aicha, and Duanjiao sanlangare all derived from A. japonica. The origin of the herb Xiaoqing referenced in the Illustrated Classic of the Materia Medica (Bencao Tujing) is A. pusilla. The medicinals Bailiangjin, Jiuguanxue and Zoumatai are derived from A. crispa, A. brevicaulis, and A. gigantifolia, respectively. This investigation clarifies the botanical sources and actions of related Chinese medicinal materials in the genus Ardisia, and provides clues and evidence for utilizing and developing their medicinal plant resources.

The molecular connectivity index was adopted to explore the characteristics of supramolecular imprinting template of herbs distributed to liver meridian, in order to provide scientific basis for traditional Chinese medicines(TCMs) distributed to liver meridian. In this paper, with "12th five-year plan" national planning textbooks Science of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Chemistry of Traditional Chinese Medicine as the blueprint, literatures and TCMSP sub-databases in TCM pharmacology of northwest science and technology university of agriculture and forestry were retrieved to collect and summarize active constituents of TCM distributed to liver meridian, and calculate the molecular connectivity index. The average molecular connectivity index of ingredients distributed to liver meridian was 9.47, which was close to flavonoid glycosides' (9.17±2.11) and terpenes (9.30±3.62). Therefore, it is inferred that template molecule of liver meridian is similar to physicochemical property of flavonoid glycosides and terpenes, which could be best matched with imprinting template of liver meridian.