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
In this paper, five field density treatments were set up in the field plot experiment, which were 2 500, 3 000, 5 000, 6 660, and 8 000 plants/mu (1 mu ≈ 666.67 m
2). The agronomic traits, economic traits, mineral element absorption and the content of effective components of
Chrysanthemum morifolium under different densities were studied. The results showed that dense planting could significantly reduce the number of secondary branches of
C. morifolium and the yield per plant, but significantly increase the population yield of
C. morifolium. The yield of
C. morifolium was the highest when the density was 8 000 plants/mu, but the effect of increasing yield would gradually decrease with the increase of planting density. With the increase of planting density, the N, P, and Mg in flowers firstly increased and then decreased. The N content in leaves increased gradually, which showed that increasing the planting density within a certain range could increase the absorption of N, P, and Mg in flowers and leaves of
C. morifolium. The content of rutin, chlorogenic acid and 3,5-
O-dicaffeoylquinic acid in
C. morifolium showed a trend of first increasing and then decreasing with the increase of planting density. When the planting density was 5 500, 5 000, and 3 750 plants/mu, the content of chlorogenic acid, rutin and 3,5-
O-dicaffeoylquinic acid had the maximum value. The content of luteolin in
C. morifolium decreased gradually with the increase of planting density. When the planting density was 7 143 plants/mu, the content of luteolin was the minimum. Considering factors such as yield and active conponent content, planting density of 5 000 plants/mu (row spacing × plant spacing = 40 cm × 30 cm) can be selected for standard planting of
C. morifolium.
Bulbus Fritillariae Thunbergii is a commonly used Chinese medicinal, which has the effects of clearing heat and dissipating mass, resolving phlegm and relieving cough. At present,
Fritillaria thunbergii is mostly cultivated, and the cultivation process requires application of basal fertilizer, winter fertilizer, seedling fertilizer and late topdressing fertilizer. Now farmyard manure or organic fertilizer can be used to replace the basal fertilizer and winter fertilizer, but the research on the replacement of organic fertilizer has not been completed for the late topdressing. Potassium fulvate is a kind of fulvate fertilizer, which can not only regulate the growth of crops but also supplement potassium for the growth of crops. In this paper,
F.
thunbergii was used as a model plant with mature cultivation techniques. The effects of potassium fulvate on the quality and yield of rhizome Chinese medicinal material
F.
thunbergii were systematically studied for the first time. HPLC-ELSD was used to determine the contents of peimine A and peimine B. Hot dip method was employed to determine the content of alcohol extract, and the SPAD-502 Plus chlorophyll meter was used to detect the SPAD value. The results showed that applying 1.5–2.25 kg·hm
−2 potassium fulvic acid per hectare could effectively improve the yield of
F.
thunbergii and there was a significant difference between potassium phosphate monobasic and potassium fulvic acid in terms of quality. After the application of 1.5 –2.25 kg·hm
−2 potassium fulvic acid per hectare, the content of alcohol extract of
F.
thunbergii was 21.61%–22.27% and the total amount of peimine A and peimine B was 0.09%–0.10%. Applying 1.5– 2.25 kg·hm
−2 potassium fulvic acid per hectare could replace the conventional pure chemical fertilizer potassium phosphate monobasic, which could be used as top dressing fertilizer for the cultivation of
F.
thunbergii.
The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of Realgar and arsenic trioxide on gut microbiota. The mice were classified into low-dose Realgar group (RL), medium-dose Realgar group (RM), high-dose Realgar group (RH), and arsenic trioxide group (ATO), in which ATO and RL groups had the same level of trivalent arsenic. Realgar and arsenic trioxide toxicity models were established after intragastric administration for one week, and mice feces were collected 1 h after intragastric administration. The effects of Realgar on gut microbiota of mice were observed through bacterial 16S rRNA gene sequences. The results showed that
Lactobacillus was decreased in all groups, while
Ruminococcus and
Adlercreutzia were increased. The RL group and ATO group were consistent in the genera of
Prevotella,
Ruminococcus, and
Adlercreutzia but different in the genera of
Lactobacillus and
Bacteroides. Therefore, the effects of Realgar and arsenic trioxide with the same amount of trivalent arsenic on gut microbiota were similar, but differences were still present. Protective bacteria such as
Lactobacillus were reduced after Realgar administration, causing inflammation. At low doses, the number of anti-inflammatory bacteria, such as
Ruminococcus,
Adlercreutzia, and
Parabacteroides increased, which could offset the slight inflammation caused by the imbalance of bacterial flora. At high doses, the flora was disturbed and the number of Proteobacteria was increased, with aggravated intestinal inflammation, causing edema and other inflammatory reactions. Therefore, we believe that the gastrointestinal reactions after clinical use of Realgar may be related to flora disorder. Realgar should be used at a low dose in combination with other drugs to reduce intestinal inflammation.
The 5-phosphomevalonate kinase (PMK) is a key enzyme in mevalonate (MVA) pathway which reversibly catalyzes the phosphorylation of mevalonate 5-phosphate (MVAP) to form mevalonate-5-diphosphate (MVAPP) in the presence of ATP and divalent metal ion such as Mg
2+. In this research, on the basis of the transciptome database of
C. camphora, the
PMK was cloned by cDNA from
C.
camphora, and was named
CcPMK (GenBank number KU886266). The ORF of
CcPMK was composed of 1 545 bp, encoding 514 amino acids. The bioinformatics analysis of
CcPMK indicated that the molecular weight of the encoded protein was 56.14 kDa, with a theoretically isoelectric point of 7.64, and there was no signal peptide or transmembrane structure in putative protein. By multiple sequence alignment and phylogenetic tree analysis, we found that similarity between CcPMK and PMK amino acid sequence of other plants was as high as 75%. Among the similar sequences, 45% of them belonged to the alpha helix, while 16% belonged to the beta strand. CcPMK obtained 3 PMK protein family motifs and 1 ATP binding site Gly-Leu-Gly-Ser-Ser-Ala-Ala, and its 3D structure contained a catalytic pocket structure, proving
CcPMK as a member of
PMK gene family. The result of phylogenetic tree showed that CcPMK was closely related to monocotyledon plants such as
Phonenix dactylifera. The results of the Real-time PCR indicated that the expression level of
CcPMK in borneol type was higher than that in linalool type, cineol type, iso-nerolidol type and camphor type.
CcPMK expressed highest in roots and lowest in branches. Our results revealed that the expression level of
CcPMK was different among five chemical types and different plant tissues, and the research provides foundation for further study of the terpenoids biosynthetic pathway in
C.
camphora.
This study is to explore the absorption properties of different particle sizes of Rhizoma Gastrodiae powder in rats. In vivo circulation pass perfusion model combined with ultra high performance liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) method was used to determine the cumulative absorption of each component in the Rhizoma Gastrodiae powders of different particle sizes, and the effects of different particle sizes, different concentrations, different intestinal segments and bile on the intestine absorption of gastrodin and other components in Rhizoma Gastrodiae powder were investigated to illuminate the absorption properties and compare the absorption difference of gastrodin and other compositions in the Rhizoma Gastrodiae powders of different particle sizes. The results showed that the absorption of gastrodin in each intestinal segment had no significant difference, suggesting that gastrodin may show passive absorption and the absorption of barrison glycosides may be active absorption; the absorption of gastrodin in ultrafine powder was better than that of common powder and superfine powder of Rhizoma Gastrodiae; the absorption of these barrison glycosides was good in the ultrafine powder of Rhizoma Gastrodiae under the high concentration. However, appropriate degree of superfine grinding could promote the absorption of active ingredients of Rhizoma Gastrodiae. This test can provide information for the deep development of Rhizoma Gastrodiae.
A simple, specific and selective quantitative analysis of multi-components by single marker (QAMS) method for simultaneous determination of anthraquinones and anthraquinone glycosides in
Polygonum multiflorum was developed. Four main anthraquinones and its glycosides, emodin, emodin-8-
O-
β-D-glucoside, physcion and physcion-8-
O-
β-D-glucoside were selected as analytes to evaluate the quality of
P.
multiflorum. Emodin was used as the internal standard, and the relative correction factors (RCFs) between emodin and the other three anthraquinones were calculated. The comparison of the contents of the four components in 30 batches of
P.
multiflorum from different regions and 12 batches decoction pieces from different manufacturers by QAMS and external standard method (ESM) showed that there was no significant difference between QAMS and ESM for quantification of the four main components by using relative error results, and the QAMS method was accurate and reliable, and had a good repeatability. In addition, compared with the results calculated by the difference method between total anthraquinone and free anthraquinone in the content determination of
P.
multiflorum in the
Chinese Pharmacopoeia, the results of direct determination combined anthraquinone by QAMS were very close to that by measured the ESM. Therefore, simultaneous quantification of four main anthraquinones by using QAMS is suitable to evaluate the quality of
P.
multiflorum. Then the optimized assay method of the combined anthraquinone contents showed simple and feasible, which could be replaced and improved the quantification method of the combined anthraquinone in the current
Chinese Pharmacopeia.
The chemical constituents of Cinnamomi Ramulus were investigated in this study. Twenty-two compounds were isolated by silica gel, Sephadex LH-20 gel column chromatographies and preparative HPLC. Their structures are identified by various spectral analyses as dihydrorosavin (
1), rosavin (
2), 1-phenyl-propane-1,2,3-triol (
3), patchoulol (
4), graphostromane B (
5), (+)-lyoniresinol-3a-
O-
β-D-glucopyranoside (
6), (−)-lyoniresinol-3a-
O-
β-D-glucopyranoside (
7), cinnacaside (
8), subaveniumin A (
9), 3-phenyl-2-propenyl 6-
O-L-arabinopyranosyl-
β-glucopyranoside (
10), 2-phenylethyl-
β-vicianoside (
11), cinnacasol (
12), [(2
R,3
S,4
S,5
R,6
R)-6-(benzyloxy)-3,4,5-trihydroxytetrahydro-2
H-pyran-2-yl]methyl hydrogen sulfate (
13), coniferyl aldehyde (
14), (2
R,3
R)-5,7-dimethoxy-3′,4′-methylenedioxyflavan-3-ol (
15), cinnacassin L (
16),
E-cinnamic alcohol (
17), (
E)-3-(2-methoxyphenyl)-2-propen-1-ol (
18), 2-hydroxyphenylpropanol (
19), cinnamomulactone (
20), (+)-syringaresinol (
21), and cinnamomumolide (
22), respectively. Among them, compound
1 is a new compound and compounds
3–
7,
9–
11,
13,
15,
18 and
19 are isolated from the plant for the first time.
In this research, high-throughput sequencing was used to investigate the mechanism of Naoxintong Capsules (NXTC) in prevention of post-ischemic inflammation. First, microglia BV-2 inflammatory model was induced by 1.0 μg·mL
−1 LPS to investigate the effects of the intestinal absorption solutions of NXTC (NXTCIA) at different concentration (62.5, 31.25, 15.63, 7.81 μg·mL
-1) on LPS-induced BV-2 inflammatory factors in microglia. Then, the RNA-Seq high-throughput sequencing method was adopted to identify the differentially-expressed mRNAs in microglia BV-2 after pre-treatment with NXTC. GO and KEGG enrichment analysis was used to screen the potential biological processes and related signaling pathways of NXTC in inhibiting inflammation. The results showed that four NXTCIA concentration gradients could significantly inhibit the release of LPS-induced inflammatory mediators in BV-2 in a dose-dependent manner. Furthermore, the high-throughput sequencing results showed that 392 mRNA transcripts were reversed following pre-treatment with NXTC. The GO enrichment analysis showed that the transcripts reversed by NXTC were mainly involved in the Toll-like receptor signaling pathway, chemokine signaling pathway, and TNF signaling pathway. In summary, our findings showed that NXTC treatment could provide protective effects against inflammatory response and the mechanism might be related to the regulation of the Toll-like receptor signaling pathway, chemokine signaling pathway, and TNF signaling pathway.
This paper was aimed at observing the effect of anemoside B4 (hereinafter referred to as B4) on cisplatin-induced acute kidney injury in mice, and to investigate its possible mechanism in renal protection from inflammation and apoptosis aspects. Mice were assigned into a normal group, a model group, a dexamethasone positive group and a B4 high, medium and low dose groups (5, 2.5, and 1.25 mg·kg
−1). All the other mice groups except normal group were subjected to tail vein injection of cisplatin (15 mg·kg
−1) to induce acute kidney injury models. The drug administration was started on the day of modeling, and lasted for 4 days. After 1 h of the last injection, orbital blood was collected. After the serum was separated, the serum blood urea nitrogen (BUN), creatinine (Cre), total protein (TP), and albumin (ALB) were tested by using an automatic biochemical analyzer; the changes of kidney pathological morphology were observed by PAS staining; the protein expression levels of inflammatory factors including nucleotide binding oligomerization domain-like receptor (NLRP3), cysteinyl aspartate specific proteinase 1 (caspase-1), interleukin-18 (IL-18), IL-1
β, tumor necrosis factor (TNF-
α), and IL-6, and apoptosis factors including p53, caspase-3, cleaved-caspase-3, B-cell lymphoma-2 (Bcl-2), and Bcl-2 associated X protein (Bax) were analyzed by Western blot. The results showed that B4 significantly reduced the serum BUN and Cre content, and alleviated pathological changes in renal tissues, such as the shedding and degeneration of renal tubular epithelial cells, and cast of tubulin. B4 significantly down-regulated the protein expression of p53, Bax, and cleaved-caspase-3 in the kidney and up-regulated the expression of Bcl-2/Bax. In model group, however, no significant up-regulation was observed in the protein expression levels of inflammatory cytokines (NLRP3, pro-caspase-1, IL-18, IL-1
β, TNF-
α, and IL-6). The results suggested that B4 had a certain protective effect on cisplatin-induced acute kidney injury, and could activate apoptotic factors pertaining to p53 signaling pathway. The renal protective effect of B4 was mainly related to the regulation of p53 signaling pathway, while NLRP3 inflammasome and related inflammatory factors had no obvious response in this model.
To explore the permeation mechanism of the micro-molecule medicinal ingredients of water extract of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in the membrane separation process. With phenolic acids as the model solute, five phenolic acids with a similar molecular weight and structure, namely gallic acid, protocatechuic acid, 4-hydroxybenzoic acid, 3-hydroxybenzoic acid and salicylic acid, were selected in the PES membrane separation experiments. With the relative flux and the transmission rate as indexes, the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) were used to analyze the permeation mechanism of different phenolic acids. The results showed phenolic acids with a similar molecular weight had different permeation behaviors, with decreased relative flux and increased solute permeation with the increase in solute concentration. According to the permeation behavior analyzed by the molecular structure of solute, the transmission rate of phenolic acids increased with the increase in the number of hydroxyl, and the order of substituent positions of phenolic acids based on the permeation rate was as follows: para-substitution > meta-substitution > ortho-substitution. EIS reflected the role of charge repulsion in the membrane process; that is to say, the greater the resistance is, the less the solute permeation is. Therefore, the permeation phenomenon of the phenolic acids in the PES membrane is not only the result of a simple sieving mechanism but also has the effects of steric hindrance and charge repulsion during the membrane process.
