Herbal property theory of traditional Chinese medicines is the theoretical guidance on authentication of medicinal plants, herborization, preparation of herbal medicines for decoction and clinical application, with important theoretical value and prac- tical significance. Our research team proposed the "three-element" theory for herbal properties for the first time, conducted a study by using combined methods of philology, chemistry, pharmacology and mathematics, and then drew the research conclusion that herbal properties are defined as the chemical compositions-based comprehensive expression with complex and multi-level (positive/negative) biological effects in specific organism state. In this paper, researchers made a systematic mathematical analysis in four aspects--the correlation between herbal properties and chemical component factors, the correlation between herbal properties and organism state fac- tor, the correlation between herbal properties and biological effect factor and the integration study of the three elements, proposed future outlook, and provided reference to mathematical studies and mathematical analysis of herbal properties.
Drug Compounding ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; pharmacology ; Humans ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Models, Theoretical ; Phytotherapy ; Plants, Medicinal ; chemistry

Studying the essence of syndromes (Zheng) in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is a fundamental challenge in basic theoretical research of TCM. The relationship between any given syndrome and biochemical indicators is one of the important aspects of the study. As the indexes selected in each study are specific to a particular Western medical disease diagnosis, and the disease factor is inevitably introduced into the study, the effect of disease factor on the index changes cannot be assessed effectively by traditional data processing methods. This is known as "the same syndrome with different reasons", which has resulted in confusion in TCM research. This study aimed at providing a mathematical tool to address this issue. Based on information theory and the residual-split method, the syndrome information, which was covered in the index variation, was quantitatively calculated in this paper as an independent part of the disease factor. A mathematical model capable of objectively assessing and statistically testing the effect of the syndrome factor on the index changes was established. Applying this model to literature data of studies on the relationship between cyclic nucleotides and yang-deficiency syndrome showed following results. First, the values of yang-deficiency syndrome information were negative for cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) while positive for cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) in all included literature. This indicated that the group of yang-deficiency syndrome was correlated with an obvious trend of reduced cAMP levels and increased cGMP levels. Second, the statistical test results of yang-deficiency syndrome information of the two indexes were different among the literature included. The quality of original data was considered as a possible reason. Third, the significant differences between the yang-deficiency group of a specific disease and the normal group may, in some cases, be caused by a disease factor rather than a syndrome factor. The mathematical model provided a reasonable mathematical tool for the analysis of disease factor and syndrome factor in clinical research of TCM, suggesting that the mathematical model may give rise to innovative ideas and methods in the study of syndromes.

Resveratrol, as a natural polyphenolic compound, has a wide range of beneficial effects, which includes anti-tumor, cardiovascular protection, anti-oxidant and estrogen-like effects, and so on. Its various physiological properties are closely related to the therapeutic principle for prevention and treatment of high altitude hypoxia injury. Resveratrol may play an important role in relieving or curing high altitude diseases, especially high altitude polycythemia(HAPC). However, the literature about study and application of resveratrol in plateau medicine field is rarely reported up to now. In this review, we summarized the physiological effects of resveratrol, discussed the possible main principle of resveratrol for HAPC therapy, and looked forward to resveratrol's perspective or potential application in high altitude medicine.
Altitude ; Humans ; Hypoxia ; drug therapy ; Polycythemia ; drug therapy ; Stilbenes ; pharmacology

The prescriptions including Polygoni Multiflori Caulis that built by Pro. Yan were collected to build a database based on traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) inheritance assist system. The method of association rules with apriori algorithm was used to achieve frequency of single medicine, frequency of drug combinations, association rules between drugs and core drug combinations. The datamining results indicated that in the prescriptions that including Polygoni Multiflori Caulis, the highest frequency used drugs were parched Ziziphi Spinosae Semen, Ostreae Concha, Ossis Mastodi Fossilia, Salviae Miltiorrhizae Radix Et Rhizoma, Paeoniae Rubra Radix, and so on. The most frequent drug combinations were "Polygoni Multiflori Caulis-parched Ziziphi Spinosae Semen", "Ostreae Concha-Polygoni Multiflori Caulis", and "Polygoni Multiflori Caulis-Ossis Mastodi Fossilia". The drug association rules of confidence coefficient 1 were "Ostreae Concha-->Polygoni Multiflori Caulis", "Poria-->Polygoni Multiflori Caulis", "parched Ziziphi Spinosae Semen-->Polygoni Multiflori Caulis", and "Paeoniae Alba Radix-->Polygoni Multiflori Caulis". The core drug combinations in the treatment of insomnia were Ossis Mastodi Fossilia, Polygoni Multiflori Caulis, Salviae Miltiorrhizae Radix et Rhizoma, Ostreae Concha, Polygalae Radix, Margaritifera Concha, Poria, and parched Ziziphi Spinosae Semen. And the core drug combinations in the treatment of obstruction of Qi in chest were Salviae Miltiorrhizae Radix Et Rhizoma, Polygoni Multiflori Caulis, parched Ziziphi Spinosae Semen, Trichosanthis Fructus, Allii Macrostemonis Bulbus, and Paeoniae Rubra Radix.
Data Mining ; methods ; Drug Combinations ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; pharmacology ; Humans ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; methods ; Plant Stems ; chemistry ; Polygonaceae ; chemistry ; Prescriptions

Humans ; Hypocalcemia ; diagnosis ; prevention & control ; Monitoring, Intraoperative ; Parathyroid Hormone ; analysis ; Thyroidectomy

Objective To investigate the effects of output power,action time and radiofrequency(RF) needle on the cool-tip radiofrequency ablation(RFA) by experimental tools and to determine the value of ultrasonography in size evaluation of RFA zone.Methods The cool-tip RFA to fresh calf liver were monitored by ultrasound.The experiments by single electrode needle were performed with different combination of output power (80 W,120 W) and time (5 min,8 min,10 min).The cluster needle was used for assessment at 5 min with different output power(80 W,120 W).After the end of trial,the longitudinal specimens were cut open.The view and size of the ablation zone were recorded with naked eyes.The pathological changes displayed by optical microscope were recorded as well.Results The measurement of ablation zone with naked eyes showed with the ablation zone expanded with time in 80 W-power cases,but the pace of expansion slowed down,but in 120 W-power cases,expansion of the ablation zone was not obvious; the ablation zone in 120 W-power was bigger than that in 80 W-power at 5 min,their difference decreased with time,and the ablation zones were similar at 10 min.The cluster needle can produce ablation zone with lesser aspect ratio than that of single electrode needle,consequently similar to circle.Ultrasonic measurement of the ablation zone had real discrepancy.Most of longitudinal diameters were greater than the real ones,while in large ablation lesions,vertical diameters were often less than the real ones.Under optical microscope,no change could be found in shape and structure of the cells in ablation zone.Conclusion The output power and performing time have impact on ablation.The high-power output increased heat production as well as reduction of heat conduction.Compared with single electrode needle,the cluster needle produced ablation zone closer to real hepatic tumor,thus has more reliable effect to small hepatocellular carcinoma with diameter around 2 cm.The ultrasond has a great significance in RFA guidance,but it could not accurately define the border of ablation zone.

The theory of four properties (Qi) and five tastes (Wei) is the core of the property theory of Chinese materia medica. It is known that Qi and Wei are associated with the pharmacological effects (Xiao) of herbs. This study took records of all 365 Chinese herbs in Shennong's Classic of Materia Medica (Shennong Ben Cao Jing) as the data resource and established a three-dimensional data cube, in the purpose of finding out and analyzing the frequent patterns and valued association rules of Qi, Wei and Xiao based on Apriori algorithm. The results of this study may give rise to innovative ideas and methods in research of traditional Chinese materia medica.

Hydrocortisone-induced yang-deficiency animal model has now become the generally accepted model of yang deficiency. However, assessing the most appropriate dose of hydrocortisone is a long-term challenge. For analyzing the modeling dose, the authors have built several kinds of yang-deficiency models induced by hydrocortisone at different doses, and analyzed the experimental data with various mathematical statistical methods. In order to discuss the effects of the modeling dose on the basis of previous research, the authors introduced Ridit analysis.

To compare the effects of Oleum Cinnamomi and water extract of Cortex Cinnamomi in rats with yang-deficiency cold syndrome based on mathematical analysis.

Evidence of the pharmacological activity of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) provides the basis for clinical prescription. Study of the classification of Chinese medicines according to these activities is key to understanding the general active tendencies of medicinal prescriptions, exploring their material basis, investigating their properties and searching for their alternatives. Taking the herbal classic Shennong's Materia Medica Classic (Shennong Bencao Jing) for the data source, this paper studied the classification of Chinese medicines based on semi-supervised incremental clustering algorithm using "micro-cluster" concept in order to investigate the complex similarity among Chinese medicines. The results showed that 253 Chinese medicines were reasonably classified into 14 types, such as invigoration, clearing heat, diuresis, dredging blockages in the channels, treating gynecological conditions and treating strange diseases caused by ghosts. The results also showed that the other 112 Chinese medicines were classified into 112 individual types and the same high similarity to different known types was the main reason for this. The semi-supervised incremental clustering algorithm employed in the study had a high quality and a good development for clustering which is suitable for classification of Chinese medicines. This study illustrated the diversity of Chinese medicines and their complex similarities, thus aiming to provide innovative ideas and methods for related research.