No abstract available.
Phytotherapy*

There is a folkloric claim that Pausinystalia yohimbe,Cassia sieberiana and Cissus populnearoots can be used to enhance sexual behaviour in male rats. However, there is still dearth of scientific evidence that substantiated the acclaimed efficacy of separate and combined use of the plant as sex enhancer. Therefore, the aims of this study were to compare the separate and combined effects of aqueous extracts of Pausinystalia yohimbe, Cassia sieberiena and Cissus populnearoots in paroxetine-induced sexually impaired male rats.Thirty five male rats were assigned into seven groups (A-G) such that rats in group A received orally 1.0 ml of distilled water for 7 days, while those in groups B -G which were induced into sexual dysfunction (administration of 10 mg/kg of paroxetine) also received equal volume of distilled water, 7.14 mg/kg body weight of PowmaxM (a reference drug), 50 mg/kg body weight of P. yohimbe, 50 mg/kg body weight of C. sieberiana, 50 mg/kg body weight of C. populneaand 50 mg/kg body weight of 1:1:1 mixture of the three extracts, once daily for seven days respectively. The sexual behavior indices of the male rats and the levels of their reproductive hormones were evaluated by standard procedures. The paroxetine-treatment related reductions (P<0.05) in the sexual behaviour indices of Mount Frequency, Intromission Frequency and Ejaculatory Frequency, levels of serum reproductive hormones of testosterone, luteinizing hormone and follicle stimulating hormone were progressively attenuated by the separate administration of the plant extracts. Furthermore, the increases in the Mount Latency, Intromission Latency, Ejaculatory Latency and Post-ejaculatory Interval were also gradually reduced, following the administration of the plant extracts. The male rat sexual behaviour indices and the levels of the male reproductive hormones following the administration of the 1:1:1 mixture of the extracts were not significantly different (P>0.05) from the effects of the separate extracts. All these changes compared favourably (P>0.05) well with those of the sexual dysfunction rats that received PowmaxM (Group G). The results obtained in the present study indicate that the extracts of these plants may have the potentialfor the management of sexual dysfunction in male rats. The combined use of the plants was not significantly better than the individual use of the plants thereby, each and any of the three plants readily available might be used for this purpose.
Aphrodisiacs ; Animals ; Phytotherapy

Integrative Medicine ; Phytotherapy

Hepatitis B, Chronic ; Phytotherapy

China ; Haplopappus ; Humans ; Phytotherapy ; Sesquiterpenes

Lancang Lahu autonomous county, where the Lancang-Mekong River flows by, was selected as the case site to investigate the traditional medicinal knowledge(TMK). A comparison of TMK between Lancang county and other places in the Lancang-Mekong sub-region was conducted. Research on TMK has been seldom reported although there are abundant medicinal resources in this sub-region. The key informant interview and other methods have been adopted in the field surveys in the past six years. The investigation revealed that there was rich TMK and various herbal medicine resources in Lancang county. A total of 220 folk prescriptions have been collected, which were normally simple with easy processing methods and usages, and most raw materials were freshly used. As for medicinal plants, 121 species in 67 families have been documented. Other findings included that TMK in Lancang county was remained at the level of medication based on experience only. The processing methods of herbal medicines were simple and the bioactive ingredients were not clear. Without text and cultural support for self-teaching, coupled with conservative inheritance, it resulted in massive losses of TMK. The folk doctors have accumulated their factions based on self-study or ancestral experience. There was different treatment experience among folk doctors, but the safety and effectiveness should be paid attention to. The folk doctors used various herbal medicines, but there was a lack of standards or specifications for quality control. Given the problems existing in inheritance and development, conservation strategies were proposed in the present study.
Ethnicity ; Humans ; Knowledge ; Phytotherapy ; Plants, Medicinal ; Rivers

Hybanthus enneaspermus (L.) F. Muell belonging to the family Violaceae, popularly known as Ratanpurus (Hindi) is a herb or a shrub distributed in the tropical and subtropical regions of the world. In the Ayurvedic literature, the plant is reported to cure conditions of "Kapha" and "Pitta", urinary calculi, strangury, painful dysentery, vomiting, burning sensation, wandering of the mind, urethral discharge, blood trouble, asthma, epilepsy, cough, and to give tone to the breasts. Phytochemically, the plant contains a considerable amount of dipeptide alkaloids, aurantiamide acetate, isoarborinol, and β-sitosterol, sugars, flavonoids, steroids, triterpenes, phenols, flavones, catachins, tannins, anthraquinones and amino acids. Pharmacologically, the plant is reported to possess antidiabetic, antiplasmodial, antimicrobial, anticonvulsant, nephroprotective, aphrodisiac, hepatoprotective, antiinflammatory, aldose reductase inhibitory and free radical scavenging activities. The information provided in this review will be worthwhile to know the applicability of H. enneaspermus for the treatment of various acute or chronic diseases with a diverse nature of phytoconstituents. The overall data in this review article were collected from various scientific sources on the research of H. enneaspermus.
Animals ; Humans ; Phytotherapy ; Plant Extracts ; chemistry ; pharmacology ; Violaceae ; chemistry

Pyrrolizidine alkaloids(PAs) are a group of naturally occurring alkaloids with a pyrrolizidine skeleton which can be found in about 3% of the world's flowering plants. It is notorious that PAs are cause the hepatoxic and genotoxic-carcinogenic effects by taking PA-containing herbs, food and dietary supplements. In order to control the poisoning caused by PAs, European Medicines Agency has set a limit of intake of PAs from herbal medicinal products at 0.007 μg of 1,2-unsaturated PAs/kg body weight. Nonetheless, a systematic overview of the amount of PAs in the herb has not been provided. Therefore, this paper is to systematically review the current status of PAs content analysis of herbal medicines and foods reported in the literature, and to provide theoretical and experimental support for the safety risk assessment and control of PAs in Chinese herbal medicines.
Food ; Herbal Medicine ; Phytotherapy ; Plants, Medicinal ; Pyrrolizidine Alkaloids/toxicity*

Through analyzing the origin and evolution of the thunder-fire moxibustion therapy, the mysteries and misunderstandings of it were revealed. As a result, a more objective and comprehensive recognition of this ancient therapy was displayed to the people nowadays. The thunder-fire moxibustion therapy maybe originate from the Taoism magic arts before the Dynasty and became matured in the middle of the Dynasty. Two categories were divided during the long-term evolution in the history. In one category, the peach twig was taken as the moxa material rather than moxa stick and the incantation of Taoism remained. Regarding the other category, the herbal medicine was mixed in the moxa stick and the herbal composition was relatively specified. The incantation was removed. The moxibustion in the first category vanished at the end of the Dynasty. The latter one kept on development from the middle of the Dynasty through the modern times. Additionally, the herbal composition of moxa material has been modified; the indication enlarged and the operation improved. This therapy is still developed and applied by many doctors at the present times.
Acupuncture Therapy ; History, Medieval ; Humans ; Moxibustion ; history ; Phytotherapy

Target discovery is the core of elucidating the mechanism of traditional Chinese medicine( TCM),and it is also the key to correlate the chemical composition and pharmacological action of TCM. The traditional target screening methods such as the activitybased probe profiling,affinity chromatography,and protein microarray are commonly used in the past,however,which are limited in TCM due to the complexity of small molecules existed in the herbal medicine. The label-free small molecule probe is a recently well-applied technology in the target discovery of natural products,which is characterized by discovering the small molecule-protein ligation without any structural modification at the ligands,and is therefore suitable to the complex chemical constituents in TCM. Furthermore,this method is conducted on the basis of proteome,which is advanced in the discovery of new or multiple target proteins of TCM. Owing to the potential of label-free probe in the target discovery of TCM,its analytical principle,application status,and general protocol were reviewed in this paper. The label-free probe technology is anticipated to accelerate the mechanism-uncovering of TCM.
Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; Ligands ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Phytotherapy ; Plants, Medicinal