China Journal of Chinese Materia Medica, the 1st in the field of TCM, is supervised by China Association for Science and Technology and sponsored by Institute of Chinese Pharmaceutical Association. The journal is China's earliest comprehensive core journal of traditional Chinese medicine, and always maintains the circulation top in the professional areas. The journal publishes the latest research and progress of traditional Chinese medicine and takes a leading position in numbers of articles published, downloads and citations among all journals in this discipline.
Its scope covers new achievements, technologies, methods, experiences and concepts resulting from the research on Chinese materia medica pursuant to Chinese medical and pharmaceutical theories, traditional experiences, and modern science and technology, including medicinal resources and identification, cultivation, processing, preparation, chemistry, pharmacology, theory of Chinese pharmacy and clinical practice, bencaological study.
The journal is included in CA, JST and CSCD.
Honorary Editor-in-Chief Xiao Peigen Editor-in-Chief Wang Yongyan
Associate Editors Zhang Boli, Hu Zhibi, Yao Xinsheng, Li Lianda, Li Dapeng, Yang Baofeng, Zhou Chaofan, Huang Luqi, Chen Shilin, Li He.
Executive Editorial Board Cai Shaoqing, Chen Shilin
It is necessary to establish MDCK-pHaMDR cell model and standard operation procedure, assessing the blood-brain barrier permeability of chemical components of traditional Chinese medicine. MDCK-pHaMDR cell model was evaluated by determining the morphology features, trans-epithelial electrical resistance, bidirectional transport and intracellular accumulation of Rhodamine123 and the apparent permeability of positive control drugs caffeine and atenolol. The MDCK-pHaMDR cell model had satisfactory integrity and tightness, and stable expression of P-gp. In addition, the transport results of the positive control drugs were consistent with the reported values in references. All the parameters tested of the MDCK-pHaMDR cell model were consistent with the requirements, so the model can be used to study the blood-brain barrier permeability of chemical components of traditional Chinese medicine.
A new furan-2-carboxylic acid, 5-[3-(hydroxymethyl)-4, 5-dimethoxyphenyl]-3-methylfuran-2-carboxylic acid (1), has been isolated from the bark of Cassia alata by using various chromatographic techniques. It displayed cytotoxicity against NB4, A549, SHSY5Y, PC3 and MCF7 cell lines with IC50 values of 2.5, 1.2, 2.2, 3.6 and 1.9 μmol·L−1, respectively.
The fried method with suet oil, which can strengthen the effect of Epimedii Folium in warming kidney and enhancing yang, has been widely used in the processing of Epimedii Folium in traditional Chinese medicine. In this paper, we adopted hydrocortisone-injection kidney-yang deficiency rat models, taking physical signs, serum testosterone, corticosterone levels and histopathological examination of rats as indictors to systematically study the synergistic effect of suet oil in warming kidney and enhancing yang of fried Epimedii Folium in the dosage form of self-assembled micelles. Epimedii Folium total flavonoids and total flavonoids micelles intragastric administration were applied on kidney-yang deficiency rat respectively, compared with model group, indicating normal physical signs and biochemical indicators, and significant alleviation in disorder of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal-thymus (HPAT) axis suppression. All these experimental results indicated that both Epimedii Folium flavonoids and its self-assembled micelles showed the significant effects in warming kidney and enhancing yang, especially the processed self-assembled micelles of Epimedii Folium. It was demonstrated that under the action of suet oil, Epimedii Folium flavonoids could form self-assembled micelles in vivo, which might be correlated with the regulation of the disorder of HPAT axis suppression and the improvement of major pathological conditions of testicular gonadal tissues. This discovery can further reveal the synergistic effect and mechanism of processing material suet oil on Epimedii Folium.
Many studies have shown that anti-aging treatment has value to prevention and treatment of some diseases. For the treatment of Parkinson’s disease, clinical and experimental researches have proved the potential value of anti-aging treatment, yet the mechanism remains unclear. For this reason, this work used the anti-aging prescriptions of Buyang Huanwu Decoction in traditional Chinese medicines example to discover the anti-aging treatment mechanism on Parkinson’s disease. The results showed that the mechanism of mitochondrial damage, apoptosis, free radicals and oxidative stress could contribute to the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. Buyang Huanwu Decoction is more than as the carrier in this article, the discovered anti-aging treatment mechanism Parkinson’s disease is not confined to Buyang Huanwu Decoction, could also be used to understand the anti-aging treatment mechanism using other prescription. The main contribution of this paper is to clarify the mechanism of anti-aging treatment of Parkinson’s disease, and provide a new strategy for the treatment and prevention of Parkinson’s disease.
This study aimed to explore the mechanism of traditional Chinese medicine, Kudzu root (Chinese name: Ge-Gen; Latin name: Puerariae Lobatae Radix) how to improve insulin resistance (IR) through the regulation of the glucose and lipid metabolism in the IR-3T3-L1 adipocytes. After the 3T3-L1 mouse preadipocytes were differentiated into mature adipocytes, IR model (IR-3T3-L1) was built with 1 μmol·L−1 dexamethasone treatment for 96 h. IR adipocytes were treated with different concentrations (5%, 10% and 15%) of Ge-Gen containing serum (GG-CS) for 12 h or 24 h, whereas rosiglitazone group as positive control in this study. The glucose contents in cell culture supernatants were detected by glucose oxidase assay and the intracellular triglyceride (TG) contents were measured by glycerol phosphate oxidase assay respectively. The mRNA expression levels of PPARγ, ADPN, GLUT4, LPL, FABP4 and FASn were determined by real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR). Results showed that IR-3T3-L1 adipocytes significantly increased glucose consumption (P < 0.01) and decreased TG contents (P < 0.01) as compared with the normal control group, the glucose consumption significantly increased with the treatment of GG-CS (P < 0.01) by dose-dependent and time-dependent manners, whereas the intracellular TG content was significantly decreased (P < 0.01) by dose-dependent manner. qPCR analysis revealed that 10% and 15% GG-CS significantly up-regulated the mRNA expression level of PPARγ, ADPN and GLUT4 (P < 0.01) with the same dose-dependent manner, whereas the GLUT4 mRNA expression was showed similar expression pattern with the treatment of 10% and 15% GG-CS (P < 0.01). We also detected the mRNA expression levels of several important lipid-metabolizing enzymes such as LPL, FASn, and FABP4 by PPARγ regulation. 15% GG-CS elevated LPL mRNA expression (P < 0.05), 10% and 15% GG-CS enhanced the FASn mRNA expression (P < 0.01), whereas 5%, 10% and 15% GG-CS down-regulated FABP4 mRNA expression (P < 0.01). Together, our results indicated that GG could regulate the glucose and lipid metabolism to ameliorate IR with multi-target manners in 3T3-L1 adipocytes.
In order to compare the effect of sulfur fumigation processing and direct hot air heating technology on puerarin contents and efficacy of Puerariae Thomsonii Radix, the fresh roots of Pueraria thomsonii were cut into small pieces and prepared into direct sunshine drying samples, direct hot air drying samples, and sulfur fumigation-hot air drying samples. Moisture contents of the samples were then determined. The puerarin contents of different samples were compared by HPLC method. Moreover, the models of drunkenness mice were established, and then with superoxide dismutase (SOD) content as the index, aqueous decoction extracts of Puerariae Thomsonii Radix samples with sulfur fumigation processing and non-sulfur fumigation processing methods were administrated by ig; the effects of sulfur fumigation on contents of SOD in mice liver and serum were determined, and the sulfur fumigation samples and non-sulfur fumigation samples were investigated for moth and mildew under different packaging and storage conditions. Results showed that the sulfur fumigation samples significantly changed the puerarin content from Puerariae Thomsonii Radix. The content of puerarin was decreased gradually when increasing the times of sulfur fumigation and amount of sulfur. SOD content in drunken mice liver and serum was significantly decreased when increasing the times of sulfur fumigation, showing significant difference with both direct sunshine drying group and direct hot air drying group. Moth and mildew were not found in the sulfur fumigation samples and direct hot air drying samples whose moisture contents were lower than the limit in Pharmacopoeia. Research showed that sulfur fumigation can significantly reduce the content of main active ingredients and reduce the efficacy of Puerariae Thomsonii Radix, indicating that the quality of Puerariae Thomsonii Radix was significantly decreased after sulfur fumigation. However, the contents of the main active ingredients, efficacy and storage results of the direct hot air drying samples were similar to those in direct sunshine drying samples, so the hot air drying process was a nice drying technology which could be promoted for use.
Rheum tanguticum from the same area was divided into eight variation types according to the plant morphology, and the difference in the content of free anthraquinones, combined anthraquinones, and double anthrone was studied. The results showed that the functional components of different variation types were significantly different. The average contents of free anthraquinone and combined anthraquinone were 2.10–6.71 and 15.43–22.04 mg·g−1, respectively. The average content of sennoside A plus sennoside B was 32.88–42.36 mg·g−1. There was significant difference among the 10 kinds of active components, except for sennoside B and physcion-8-O-glucosides. According to the contents and proportions of functional components, it was speculated that type B and type E might be potential special medicinal germplasms for purgation and attacking food accumulation; type G and type H might be the potential special medicinal germplasms for clearing heat and removing toxin; type C and type F might be potential special medicinal germplasms for activating blood and resolving stasis; type A and type D might be potential special medicinal germplasms with astringent hemostatic funtion. The conclusion laid a solid foundation for directional cultivation of high-quality Radix et Rhizoma Rhei varieties with special purpose.
