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
This present study was to investigate the metabolism and excretion of characteristic polyphenols such as flavonoids and coumarins in urine and feces of rats after intragastric administration of ethanol extracts of Citri Reticulatae Pericarpium Viride and Citri Reticulatae Pericarpium. The urine and feces of rats were collected after intragastric administration of 70% ethanol extracts of Citri Reticulatae Pericarpium Viride and Citri Reticulatae Pericarpium. Rapid resolution liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole tandem mass spectrometry (RRLC-QqQ-MS
n) was applied to compare the contents of polyphenols in ethanol extract, urine and feces. By comparing with reference substance, 30 polyphenols were identified from the ethanol extracts of Citri Reticulatae Pericarpium Viride and Citri Reticulatae Pericarpium, including flavone glycosides, flavones, flavonone glycosides, flavonones, flavonol glycosides, polymethoxyflavones, coumarins, and limonoids and so on. The detection of various types of compounds showed differences in contents between the intestinal metabolism and excretion in the feces after systemic circulatory metabolism and renal excretion. The results showed that the polymethoxyflavones and flavonones were primarily excreted through urine, and the flavonone glycosides and limonoids were primarily excreted through feces. However, coumarins were hardly detected in feces and urine, indicating that coumarins may be metabolized in the body.
Based on the nanofiltration mass transfer model, the enhanced separation behavior of ephedrine in organic solution was studied. In the experiment, the sensitive region of ethanol concentration and pH on the rejection of ephedrine was screened out by Box-Behnken central composite experiment design. Furthermore, to analyze the separation regularity of ephedrine and organic solution, the correlation between mass transfer coefficient and concentration of organic solvent was fitted with the changed organic solution by nanofiltration mass transfer mathematical model. Experiments showed the enhanced separation behavior, the decrease in the mass transfer coefficient while the increase in ethanol concentration from 20% to 40%, MWCO at 450 and pH 6.0. Under the same conditions, the enhanced separation behavior appeared as the solvent changed into methanol and acetonitrile, the enhanced effect was positively correlated with the concentration of the three common organic solvents, and the effect order was acetonitrile > ethanol > methanol. This study took ephedrine as an example, and explored the mechanism of nanofiltration separation in the environment of organic solution, so as to provide references for nanofiltration separation for heat-sensitive traditional Chinese medicine of alkaloid.
As one of the three pillars of Chinese medicine industry, traditional Chinese medicines prepared in ready-to-use forms are important raw materials for clinical medication and production of Chinese patent drugs. By considering the literature of Curcumae Radix, a multi-source Chinese herb and the situation of market investigation, the modern evaluation method based on traditional grading was introduced for comprehensive evaluation of the processed Curcumae Radix. The correlation between traditional grading method and modern evaluation index was explored to establish the grading standard of Curcumae Radix. According to the comprehensive evaluation, Curcumae Radix was divided into four grades: superior, first, second and third grades under the guidance of the theory of traditional Chinese medicine. This study provides a new idea for the grading of multi-source processed Chinese medicine, achieving high quality and good price, which is helpful to improve the clinical efficacy.
Ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with tandem high-resolution mass spectrometry (UHPLC-HR-MS
n) method was used to analyze the constituents of Compound Liquorice Tablet and the main metabolites in rat plasma. Rat plasma was collected both before and after oral administration of Compound Liquorice Tablet. After solid phase extraction, ACQUITY UHPLC BEH C
18 (2.1 mm × 100 mm, 1.7 μm) was used with 0.1% formic acid-acetonitrile solution as the mobile phase for gradient elution. The chemical components in Compound Liquorice Tablet and their prototypes and metabolites in plasma samples were analyzed by LTQ-Orbitrap equipped with an ESI ion source in a positive ion mode. Based on the accurate relative molecular mass, the retention time and mass fragmentation patterns, a total of 55 compounds were tentatively identified from Compound Liquorice Tablet, including 42 flavonoids, nine triterpenes and four alkaloids. Furthermore, metabolites in rat plasma after oral administration of Compound Liquorice Tablet were also analyzed. A total of 26 compounds were identified, including 20 prototypes and six metabolites, mainly through such metabolic pathways as hydroxylation, glucuronidation and sulfation. Our results have shown that the ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with linear ion trap quadrupole Orbitrap high resolution mass spectrometry (UHPLC-LTQ-Orbitrap) could comprehensively elucidate the chemical constituents of Compound Liquorice Tablet and their migrating components in rat plasma, providing scientific basis for further studying the metabolism process and pharmacodynamic substance of Compound Liquorice Tablet.
Macrophages are a group of immune cells with pluripotency and plasticity that can be differentiated into different phenotypes under different microenvironments in vitro and in vivo. In the development of pulmonary fibrosis, there are alveolar macrophages and interstitial macrophages, which are polarized to different cell phenotypes at different stages of development. And their polarized phenotypes include M1 macrophages and M2 macrophages. In the early inflammation of pulmonary fibrosis, the increased M1 macrophages are helpful to clear pathogenic microorganisms and promote the progress of inflammation. In the late stage of fibrosis, the M2 macrophages are increased, which can inhibit the inflammatory reaction or directly promote fibrotic degradation. Clarifying the polarization and polarization mechanisms of macrophages in pulmonary fibrosis will be conducive to the treatment of pulmonary fibrosis. In IPF, the polarization mechanisms of M1 and M2 are closely related to TGF-
β1/Smad. TGF-
β1/Smad pathway plays an important regulatory role in liver fibrosis, renal fibrosis, myocardial fibrosis, scars, tumors and other diseases. Blocking the TGF-
β1 signal transduction by Smad3 and Smad4 is beneficial to inhibit the polarization of AM, which in turn helps to inhibit the progression of IPF.
Fourteen compounds, including rubiprasin D (1), rubiprasin B (2), rubiprasin C (3), oleanolic acid (4), methyl-5-hydroxy-dinaphtho[1,2-2'3']furan-7,12-dione-6-carboxylate (5), rubioncolin C (6), mollugin (7), furomollugin (8), 3-amino-2-methoxycarbonyl-1,4-naphthoquinone (9), 1-hydroxy-2-methyl-9,10-anthraquinone (10), 2-hydroxy-6-methyl-9,10-anthraquinone (11), 1,4-dihydroxy-2-hydroxymethyl-9,10-anthraquinone (12), 2-hydroxy-1-methoxy-9,10-anthraquinone (13), and 1-hydroxy-2-methoxy-6-methyl-9, and 10-anthraquinone (14), were isolated from the methanol extract of the roots and rhizomes of
Rubia oncotricha using various column chromatographic approaches. Their structures were mainly determined on the basis of spectrometric methods including NMR and MS. Compound 1 was a new oleanane-type triterpene, and compounds 2–5, 9 and 11–13 were obtained from this plant for the first time. Cytotoxic and nematicidal activities of all these compounds were evaluated, and the results showed that only compounds 4, 6, 11, and 12 exhibited cytotoxicities against human non-small cell lung cancer cell A549, human gastric cancer cell line SGC-7901, and cancer cell line HeLa. Compound 6 had the strongest activities, with the IC
50 values against the three cell lines of 19.42, 2.74, and 8.07 μmol·L
−1, respectively.
