Chinese herbal property theory (CHPT) is the fundamental characteristic of Chinese materia medica different from modern medicines. It reflects the herbal properties associated with efficacy and formed the early framework of four properties and five flavors in Shennong's Classic of Materia Medica. After the supplement and improvement of CHPT in the past thousands of years, it has developed a theory system including four properties, five flavors, meridian entry, direction of medicinal actions (ascending, descending, floating and sinking) and toxicity. However, because of the influence of philosophy about yin-yang theory and five-phase theory and the difference of cognitive approach and historical background at different times, CHPT became complex. One of the complexity features was the multiple methods for determining herbal property, which might include the inference from herbal efficacy, the thought of Chinese Taoist School and witchcraft, the classification thinking according to manifestations, etc. Another complexity feature was the multiselection associations between herbal property and efficacy, which indicated that the same property could be inferred from different kinds of efficacy. This paper analyzed these complexity features and provided the importance of cognitive approaches and efficacy attributes corresponding to certain herbal property in the study of CHPT.

Chinese herbal property is the highly summarized concept of herbal nature and pharmaceutical effect, which reflect the characteristics of herbal actions on human body. These herbal actions, also interpreted as presenting the information about pharmaceutical effect contained in herbal property on the biological carrier, are defined as herbal property expressions. However, the biological expression of herbal property is believed to possess complex features for the involved complexity of Chinese medicine and organism. Firstly, there are multiple factors which could influence the expression results of herbal property such as the growth environment, harvest season and preparing methods of medicinal herbs, and physique and syndrome of body. Secondly, there are multiple biological approaches and biochemical indicators for the expression of the same property. This paper elaborated these complexities for further understanding of herbal property. The individuality of herbs and expression factors should be well analyzed in the related studies.

Objective To study the efficacy of JueDuYin in the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). Methods 120 cases were randomly recruited into a treatment group and a control group, with 60 cases in each group.The treatment group was given JueDuYin, one dosage per day, while the control group was administrated with Finasteride, 5mg per day. After three courses of twelve weeks' treatment, the indications of international prostate symptom score (IPSS), residue urine (RU), Qmax and total prostatic value (IPV) were observed. Results There was significant changes in the valve of IPSS,RU, Qmax for both groups after the treatment compared (P<0.05～0.01). The therapeutic effects of the treatment group was obvious better than the control group (P<0.05).

Epilepsy ; chemically induced ; Humans ; Poisoning ; physiopathology ; Xylenes ; poisoning

Cells, Cultured ; Flutamide ; pharmacology ; Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells ; cytology ; drug effects ; metabolism ; Humans ; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-myb ; metabolism ; Sp1 Transcription Factor ; metabolism ; Testosterone ; antagonists & inhibitors ; physiology ; Transcription Factors ; metabolism ; Tumor Suppressor Protein p53 ; metabolism

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

Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Female ; Humans ; Lymphoma, Large B-Cell, Diffuse ; diagnosis ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Young Adult

Wistar rats, fed laborotory stock diets, were randomly divided into three groups, given cholesterol oxides (Och) and purified cholesterol (Pch) (at a dosage of 250mg/kg/day), and gelatin (control group) through stomach tube for 2 successive days. In the first part of the experiment, Evans blue, dissolved in normal saline, was injected into the tail veins 18 hrs after last tube feeding and the rats were killed 2 hrs following the injection, The aorta were excised for determination of the endothelial permeability by fluorophotometry. In the second part of the experiment, the rats were sacrificed 24 hrs after last tube feeding. The aorta were prepared for the observation of the aortic endothelium under scanning electronic microscope. The results showed that the endothelial permeability of rats fed Och was much higher than those fed Pch and gelatin (P0.05). Scanning electron microscopic observation showed that severe endothelial damage occ-ured in the Och rats, while the aortic endothelium from the rats fed Pch revealed relatively mild degeneration. Results were briefly disscussed.

Objective To investigate the clinical outcomes of radical surgery for pancreatic body and tail tumors accompanied with sinistral portal hypertension (SPH).Method The clinicopathological data of 35 patients with pancreatic body and tail tumors accompanied with SPH operated from January 2004 to December 2014 were retrospectively analyzed.Results Of 35 patients,22 patients had body and tail pancreatic carcinomas,10 patients had malignant solid pesudopaillary tumors and 1 patients had a neuroendocrine tumor.All these patients developed splenomegaly and varices in the gastric fundus with normal hepatic function.The splenic vein pressure was (27.3 ±3.8)cmH2O (1 cmH2O =0.098 kPa),its average diameter was (1.3 ± 0.3) cm,and the speed of splenic vein blood flow was (8.9 ± 0.8) cm/s.Of the 35 patients with pancreatic body and tail tumors who underwent radical resectional operations,22 patients in addition underwent devascularization.There were 13 of these 22 patients who underwent pericardical devascularization and the remaining 9 underwent total or proximal gastrectomy.The main complications were pancreatic fistula (n =5,14.2％),intra-abdominal infection (n =4,11.5％),delayed gastric emptying (n =1,2.8％),lymphatic fistula (n =1,2.8％) and gastric perforation (n =1,2.8％).The post-complication morbidity rate was 34％.All these patients were followed-up for 6 to 60 months after operations.There was no upper gastrointestinal bleeding which occurred within 6 months of operation.Conclusion Multi-disciplinary treatment,complete preoperative evaluation,correct perioperative and individualized management enhanced efficacy in the surgical treatment of patients with pancreatic body and tail tumors with SPH.

AIM:To explore the effects of small interfering RNA(siRNA) targeting PCNA gene on nasopharyngeal carcinoma CNE2 cells growth and cycle.METHODS:Three synthesized siRNA targeting PCNA gene was transfected into CNE2 cells by using LipofectamineTM reagent.The PCNA mRNA and PCNA protein were detected by real-time polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR) and immunohistochemical method.Inverted phase contrast microscope was used to determine the CEN2 cells growth before and after PCNA-siRNA transfected.Flow cytometry was used to observe the cell cycle.RESULTS:In CNE2 cells after PCNA-siRNA transfection,the expressions of PCNA mRNA and protein were down-regulated at different degree.Inhibition ratio of PCNA mRNA was 98.5%.Meanwhile,the cell cycle was suffocated at G0/G1 stage.CONCLUSION:The synthesized PCNA-siRNA effectively interferes nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells by down-regulating the expressions of the PCNA mRNA and its protein,therefore inhibits the growth of CNE2 cells.Future application of PCNA-siRNA in the gene therapy of nasopharyngeal carcinoma might be expected.