Various column chromatography, such as silica gel, Sephadex LH-20, ODS, and semi-preparative HPLC was used to isolate and purify the chemical constituents from Cinnamomum cassia. The structures were determined on the basis of NMR and MS spectral data analysis, together with the comparison with literature data. Fifteen compounds were isolated from the 85% aqueous ethanol extract of C. cassia, and their structures were identified as (2R, 3R)-5,7,3',4'-tetramethoxyflavan-3-ol( 1), (2R, 3R)-5,7-dimethoxy-3',4'-methylenedioxyflavan-3-ol (2), coumarin (3), cinnamic acid (4), (E)-2-hydroxy-phenylpropionic acid cinnamoyl ester (5), 3, 3', 4, 4'-tetrahydroxy biphenyl (6), methylstictic acid (7), epi-boscialin (8), (1R,2S,3S,4S)-2,3-epoxy-1, 4-dihydroxy-5-methyl-5-cyelohexene (9), 4,5-dihydroxy-3-methyl cyclohex-2-enone (10), cis-4-hydroxymellein (11), and 2-hydroxy-4-methoxyl-cinnamaldehyde (12). Compounds 5-11 were obtained from this genus plants for the first time.
Cinnamomum aromaticum ; chemistry ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; isolation & purification ; Mass Spectrometry ; Molecular Structure

Acute Coronary Syndrome ; etiology ; Aortic Valve Insufficiency ; Female ; Heart Valve Prosthesis ; adverse effects ; Humans ; Middle Aged ; Prosthesis Failure

This study is to develop a sensitive method by using reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography coupled with UV detector (HPLC-UV) to simultaneously determine four bioactive compounds, iriflophenone 3-C-beta-D-glucoside, iriflophenone 3,5-C-beta-D-diglucoside, mangiferin, and iriflophenone 2-O-alpha-L-rhamnoside in the leaves of Aquilaria sinensis. An Agilent Zorbax SB-C, column (4, 6 mm x 250 mm, 5 microm) was used, and the gradient elution was performed with mobile phase of 0.1% aqueous phosphoric acid and acetonitrile at a flow rate of 1 mL x min(-1). The detection wavelength was 280 nm, and the column temperature was 25 degrees C. The four marker compounds were well separated with good linearity (R2 > 0.9990), precision, stability and repeatabili y. The-recovery rates were in the range of 98.80%-101.39%. For 15 branch of the leaves, the contents of iriflophenone 3-C-beta-D-gluoside, iriflophenone 3,5-C-beta-D-diglucoside, mangiferin, and iriflophenone 2-O-alpha-L-rhamnoside were between 0.41-14.48, 0.72-3.85, 4.30-29.07, 0.24-5.06 mg, respectivley. This method is precise, accurate and reliable, which provides an efficient way for the quality control of the leaves of A. sinensis. This will promote the comprehensive usage of this plant.
Benzophenones ; analysis ; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid ; methods ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; analysis ; Plant Leaves ; chemistry ; Spectrophotometry, Ultraviolet ; methods ; Thymelaeaceae ; chemistry ; Xanthones ; analysis

Referring to the rapid developed life science and the higher requirements for the approval of innovative Chinese drugs in recent years, this paper described systematically the discovery, research and development (R&D) approaches for the innovative Chinese drugs under the new situation from the following five aspects, i. e., active components discovered from TCMs, the discovery of effective fractions of TCMs and their formulae, the R&D of TCM innovative drugs based on famous classic prescriptions and famous Chinese patent drugs, and the transformation of clinical effective prescriptions, on the basis of analysing the advantages of innovative drugs derived from natural products based on TCM theories and the problems existed in current R&D of new TCM drugs. Moreover, five suggestions are also given for the rapid development of TCM innovative drugs in China. All these will provide reference for the R&D of TCM innovative drugs.
China ; Drug Discovery ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; isolation & purification ; pharmacology ; Humans ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; trends ; Research

In this study, the flow injection (FI) technology combined with the unique step wise multiple ions monitoring scanning (step-wise MIM) mode of Qtrap-MS was first established for the identification and discrimination of eight Murraya species. It only takes 5 min for each sample to detect approximate 600 compounds. The characteristic MS chromatograms of eight Murraya plants were analyzed by Analyst and SIMCA-P. The results of PCA showed that sect. Murraya and sect. Bergera were clearly divided into two categories, suggesting that there is difference in the chemical compositions between these two groups. Further detail analysis of the MS data could realize the preliminary structure elucidation of the component types contained in different plants. The main components in M. exotica and M. alata are coumarins, and polymethoxyflavones are rich in M. paniculata, while carbazole alkaloids are the major ones in sect. Bergera plants. The results are consistent with our previous comprehensive analysis of the chemical components of Murraya species. In conclusion, our research confirmed that FI-Qtrap-MS technology can be used for rapid identification and differentiation of similar plant species, providing reference for chemical taxonomy and a new method for the quality evaluation of medicinal materials.

Modern pharmacological studies have shown that Cistanche deserticola (C. deserticola) has a protective effect on the liver, but its active fraction and mechanism are not clear. In order to identify the effective fraction of C. deserticola Y. C. Ma, an acute alcoholic liver injury model in mice was established with 56-proof Erguotou and different fractional extracts of C. deserticola Y. C. Ma (total glycosides, polysaccharides, and oligosaccharides) were administered. After 14 days of oral administration, liver pathology and lipid deposition were measured and the expression of nuclear factor E2-related factor (Nrf-2), kelch-like ECH-associated protein-1 (Keap-1), and plasmalemma vesicle-associated protein-1 (PV1) were measured by immunofluorescence. The levels of alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), endotoxin (ET), diamine oxidase (DAO), and D-lactic acid (D-LA) in serum, and superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), catalase (CAT), and malondialdehyde (MDA) in liver were measured by ELISA. All animal experiments were carried out with approval of the Experimental Animal Welfare Ethics Committee of the Peking University Health Science Center. The results show that the total glycosides of C. deserticola Y. C. Ma (400 mg·kg^-1) could decrease liver pathology, decrease serum endotoxin, diamine oxidase, and D-lactic acid, and reduce hepatic lipid deposition. Total glycosides also promoted Nrf-2 transfer into the nucleus and decreased the expression of Keap-1 and PV1. In summary, the total glycosides of C. deserticola Y. C. Ma had a protective effect in acute alcoholic liver injury and the mechanism may be related to the activation of the Nrf-2/Keap-1 pathway, improvement of intestinal wall integrity, and inhibition of the transport of harmful substances into the liver.

In order to control the quality of Vigna radiata, the quality control method and standard were established in this study. The tests of water content, ash and ethanol-soluble extractives of V. radiata were carried out according to the methods recoded in appendix of Chinese Pharmacopeia (2010 edition, volume 1). The TLC method was established by using vitexin and isovitexin as references, and a mixture of acetate-method-water (10: 1.7 : 1.3) as the developing solvent system on GF254 thin layer plate. The contents of vitexin and isovitexin were determined by HPLC on a Prevail C18 (4.6 mm x 250 mm, 5 microm) column, using acetonitrile: water (23 : 77) as mobile phase at a flow rate of 1.0 mL x min(-1). The column temperature is 30 degrees C and the detection wavelength is 337 nm. As a result, vitexin, isovitexin and the other constituents were well separated on TLC detected under the UV light (254 nm). The methodology validation for the assay of vitexin and isovitexin presented that they were in good linear correlation in the ranges of 6.12-98 mg x L(-1) and 6.85-109.6 mg x L(-1), with the regression equations of Y = 46.213X - 7.100 (r = 1.000) and Y = 54.515X + 6.829 (r = 1.000), and the average recoveries were 98.2% (RSD 1.9%) and 97.2% (RSD 0.79%), respectively. The content ranges of vitexin and isovitexin from 25 different batches of V. radiata were 1.076-2.062 mg x g(1) and 1.127-2.303 mg x g(-1), respectively. suggesting that the qualities of V. radiata are relatively stable. The ethanol-soluble extractives, water content and total ash of 25 samples varied in the ranges of 13.27% - 18.46%, 9.59% - 12.43% and 2.63% - 3.53%, respectively. All of the above data proved that the established quality of control method V. radiata is specific and accurate, which can be used for the quality control of this drug.
Apigenin ; chemistry ; Fabaceae ; chemistry ; Quality Control

AIM:To evaluate the effects of treatment with HP 1188-immunoglobulin yolk ( HP1188-IgY) on Helicobacter pylori ( H.pylori)-infected gastritis in BALB/c mice.METHODS:BALB/c mice were used to establish an animal model of H.pylori-infected gastritis, and the mice were divided into 8 groups (10 mice per group).Oral antibiotics were used in group 1, 1 mg HP1188-IgY in group 2, 1 mg HP1188-IgY plus 30%sucralfate in group 3, 5 mg HP1188-IgY in group 4, 5 mg HP1188-IgY plus 30%sucralfate in group 5, PBS in group 6, and 30% sucralfate in group 7 with the treatment once per day for 10 d;and 2.5 mg HP1188-IgY was injected hypodermically twice with a 48-h interval in group 8.Another 10 mice were used as normal control in group 9.The planting of bacteria in the stomach was assayed by bacteri-al culture, rapid urease test, PCR and pathological sectioning .RESULTS:Intragastric administration with 1 mg HP1188-IgY plus 30%sucralfate per day effectively cured the injury of gastric mucosa caused by H.pylori infection, and the effect has no significant difference compared with antibiotics (P>0.05).CONCLUSION:We establish a BALB/c mouse mod-el infected with H.pylori successfully.Sucralfate (30%) is an ideal protectant for HP1188-IgY, which might decrease H. pylori infection in the stomach of BALB/c mice by oral inoculation .

Quantitative NMR (qNMR) is a technology based on the principle of NMR. This technology does not need the references of the determined components, which supplies a solution for the problem of reference scarcity in the quantitative analysis of traditional Chinese medicines. Moreover, this technology has the advantages of easy operation, non-destructiveness for the determined sample, high accuracy and repeatability, in comparison with HPLC, LC-MS and GC-MS. NMR technology has achieved quantum leap in sensitivity and accuracy with the development of NMR hardware. In addition, the choice of appropriate experimental parameters of the pre-treatment and measurement procedure as well as the post-acquisition processing is also important for obtaining high-quality and reproducible NMR spectra. This review summarizes the principle of qHNMR, the various experimental parameters affecting the accuracy and the precision of qHNMR, such as signal to noise ratio, relaxation delay, pulse width, acquisition time, window function, phase correction and baseline correction, and their corresponding optimized methods. Moreover, the application of qHNMR in the fields of quantitation of single or multi-components of traditional Chinese medicines, the purity detection of references, and the quality analysis of foods has been discussed. In addition, the existing questions and the future application prospects of qNMR in natural product areas are also presented.
Biological Products ; chemistry ; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy ; methods ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Reproducibility of Results

Objective To perform a preclinical test of a delineation software based on atlas-based auto-segmentation (ABAS),to evaluate its accuracy in the delineation of organs at risk (OARs) in radiotherapy planning for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC),and to provide a basis for its clinical application.Methods Using OARs manually contoured by physicians on planning-CT images of 22 patients with NPC as the standard,the automatic delineation using two different algorithms (general and head/neck) of the ABAS software were applied to the following tests:(1) to evaluate the restoration of the atlas by the software,automatic delineation was performed on copied images from each patient using the contours of OARs manually delineated on the original images as atlases;(2) to evaluate the accuracy of automatic delineation on images from various patients using a single atlas,the contours manually delineated on images from one patients were used as atlases for automatic delineation of OARs on images from other patients.Dice similarity coefficient (DSC),volume difference (Vdiff),correlation between the DSC and the volume of OARs,and efficiency difference between manual delineation and automatic delineation plus manual modification were used as indices for evaluation.Wilcoxon signed rank test and Spearman correlation analysis were used.Results The head/neck algorithm had superior restoration of the atlas over the general algorithm.The DSC was positively correlated with the volume of OARs and was higher than 0.8 for OARs larger than 1 cc in volume in the restoration test.For automatic delineation with the head/neck algorithm using a single atlas,the mean DSC and Vdiff were 0.81-0.90 and 2.73％-16.02％,respectively,for the brain stem,temporal lobes,parotids,and mandible,while the mean DSC was 0.45-0.49 for the temporomandibular joint and optic chiasm.Compared with manual delineation,automatic delineation plus manual modification saved 68％ of the time.Conclusions A preclinical test is able to determine the accuracy and conditions of the ABAS software in specific clinical application.The tested software can help to improve the efficiency of OAR delineation in radiotherapy planning for NPC.However,it is not suitable for delineation of OAR with a relatively small volume.