Cai which are stem or heartwood of trees or stem of woody liana are a kind of medicinal plant resources traditionally used by Li Minoriy. Ethnobotanical methods were adopted for the investigation on traditional utilization of cai. Totally, 44 species in 26 families and 30 genera were reported to be used as cai. Most of the species were applied as decoction (70.5%) and medicinal liquor (27.3%) to treat a wide range of diseases, such as rheuma-toid arthritis (34.1%), liver diseases (18.2%), injuries and weak (15.9% respectively). Through literature survey, it was found that 7 species (15.9%) were used by Li Minority only. Besides, 13 species (29.5%) were used differently compared with that of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Consequently, it is indicated that indigenous knowledge of using medicinal plants by Li Minority is unique.

Objective To investigate the association of HLA-A and -B alleles with syphilis in Shandong Han population. Methods The allele frequencies of HLA-A and -B were detected in 205 patients with syphilis and 5844 normal human controls by PCR-sequence specific oligonucleotide probe (PCR-SSOP)method. Results The patients with syphilis showed a higher frequency of HLA-A*02, B*15, B*40 alleles(all P＜0.01, Pc＜0.05) and a lower frequency of HLA-A*26 allele (P= 0.003, Pc = 0.039) than the normal human controls did. There was an increased frequency of HLA-B*15 and B*40 alleles in patients with symptomatic syphilis (both P＜0.01, Pc＜0.05), as well as an elevated frequency of HLA-A*02, 11, 29, B*15 and 40 alleles (all P＜0.01, Pc＜0.05) and a decreased frequency of HLA-A*30 and 33 in patients with asymptomatic syphilis(P=0.002, 0.026, Pc=0.001, 0.013 respectively), compared with the normal human controls. The frequency of HLA-A*30 allele was significantly higher in patients with symptomatic syphilis than in those with asymptomatic syphilis (P = 0.001, Pc = 0.013). Conclusions There seems to be an association between HLA-A*02, B* 15 and B*40 alleles and syphilis, between HLA-A*30 allele and symptomic syphilis, and between HLA-A*02, 11 and 29 alleles and asymptom1atic syphilis, in Shandong Han population.

Objective: To make laboratorial diagnosis of imported yellow fever (YF) cases in Fujian province with molecular method . Methods: Serum and urine samples were collected from suspected cases at various time-points post illness onset. Real-time RT-PCR and nested RT-PCR were performed respectively for viral specific nucleotide detection and fragment amplification. Sequencing and restrictive fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) method were used to identify the wild virus infection. Results: A total of five cases with wild yellow fever virus (YFV) infection were confirmed in this study. It revealed that the viral agent belonged to Angola-71 like YFV, and the duration of viral agent in urine was longer than that in serum. Conclusions Simultaneous detection of serum and urine samples would increase detection sensitivity, and further RFLP method contributed to rapid identification of wild YFV infection and exclusion of positive result due to recent vaccination.