Quality standardization of complementary medicine is fundamental for industry and practice as it underpins the quality,safety and efficacy of Chinese herbal medicines.Current herbal standardizations are often based on the quantitative analysis of a single compound,which may not reflect the total characteristic,bioactive and toxic nature of the herbs or products.Therefore,there is a need to establish an internationally recognized methodology for quality standardization of Chinese herbal medicines.The analytical methods reviewed in this article are pharmacognosy,TLC,HPLC,LCMS,CE and chemo-metrics.This article also covers the developments and applications of these methods in quality standardization.Recent advances show that a combination of these methods creates an overall chemical profile of each herb.This iS supported by results reviewed in this article and obtained in our laboratory tests on medicinal herbs including Hypericum perforatum,Morinda officinalis and Centella asiatica.Significant variations in active components have been observed between herbal samples and products.It is proposed that the identification of active components,pharmacological activities and eventual clinical applications are required for a comprehensive quality standardization system.Our findings indicate that the combination of various chromatographic and chemometric methods will advance the methodology of quality standardization and enhance the overall confidence in herbal medicine for the health practitioner and the public.

OBJECTIVETo investigate the absorption mechanism of oxysophocarpine across Caco-2 cell monolayer model.

METHODThe safety concentration of oxysophocarpine in Caco-2 cell was first selected by using MTT method. Then the Caco-2 cell monolayers drug transport model was assigned to study the bi-direction transport mechanism of oxysophocarpine by evaluating the influent factors such as time, concentration, pH, P-gp inhibitor of verapamil, on its absorption characterization.

RESULTIn the Caco-2 cell monolayer model, the transport volume was correlated positively with the time and concentration of oxysophocarpine, and affected by pH value. Verapamil had no influence on its transport since the transport of oxysophocarpine from apical (AP) to basolateral (BL) was similar to the transport from basolateral to apical.

CONCLUSIONThe intestinal absorption mechanism of oxysophocarpine was deduced as passive transference by Caco-2 cell monolayer model.

Alkaloids ; pharmacokinetics ; Biological Transport ; Caco-2 Cells ; Cell Membrane Permeability ; drug effects ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; pharmacokinetics ; Humans ; Intestinal Absorption ; drug effects ; Models, Biological

This paper reviewed the definition, competence and training status of "dual-qualification" nursing teachers at home and abroad from several aspects including pre-service teacher preparation, entry qualification, in-service training and performance assessment and bring up some relevant problems and countermeasures of our country. It is expected to provide references for the construction of "dual-qualification" nursing faculty in China.