Traditional Chinese Herbal Medicine (traditional + chinese_herbal_medicine)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Traditional Chinese herbal medicines for treatment of liver fibrosis and cancer: from laboratory discovery to clinical evaluation

LIVER INTERNATIONAL, Issue 7 2007
John M. Luk
Abstract Liver disease afflicts over 10% of the world population. This includes chronic hepatitis, alcoholic steatosis, fibrosis, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), which are the most health-threatening conditions drawing considerable attention from medical professionals and scientists. Patients with alcoholism or viral hepatitis are much more likely to have liver cell damage and cirrhosis, and some may eventually develop HCC, which is unfortunately, and very often, a fatal malignancy without cure. While liver surgery is not suitable in many of the HCC cases, patients are mostly given palliative support cares or transarterial chemoembolization or systemic chemotherapies. However, HCC is well known to be a highly chemoresistant tumour, and the response rate is <10,20%. To this end, alternative medicines are being actively sought from other sources with hopes to halt the disease's progression or even eliminate the tumours. Traditional Chinese herbal medicine has begun to gain popularity worldwide for promoting healthcare as well as disease prevention, and been used as conventional or complementary medicines for both treatable and incurable diseases in Asia and the West. In this article, we discuss the laboratory findings and clinical trial studies of Chinese herbal medicines (particularly small molecule compounds) for the treatment of liver disease ranging from fibrosis to liver cancer. [source]


Qualities and antioxidant properties of bread as affected by the incorporation of yam flour in the formulation

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF FOOD SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY, Issue 2 2004
Chin-Lin Hsu
Summary Yams (the tubers of Dioscorea spp.) are widely consumed but are also regarded as a medicinal food in China. Traditional Chinese herbal medicines using yams are only available on a seasonal basis, as yams quickly deteriorate during winter storage. Yam (Dioscorea purpurea, a major variety of yams in Taiwan) was freeze-dried and ground to obtain yam flour. Bread was made by replacing up to 25% of wheat flour with yam flour. Although the loaf volume decreased with the addition of yam flour, the results showed that up to 20% of yam flour could be included in bread formulation without altering the sensory acceptance of the blended bread. The incorporation of yam flour in bread markedly increased the antioxidant capacity of the bread as tested by both DPPH free radical scavenging and total antioxidation tests. Breads containing yam flour can broaden the utilization of yams and may be regarded as possible health-promoting foods. [source]


Traditional Chinese herbal medicines for treatment of liver fibrosis and cancer: from laboratory discovery to clinical evaluation

LIVER INTERNATIONAL, Issue 7 2007
John M. Luk
Abstract Liver disease afflicts over 10% of the world population. This includes chronic hepatitis, alcoholic steatosis, fibrosis, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), which are the most health-threatening conditions drawing considerable attention from medical professionals and scientists. Patients with alcoholism or viral hepatitis are much more likely to have liver cell damage and cirrhosis, and some may eventually develop HCC, which is unfortunately, and very often, a fatal malignancy without cure. While liver surgery is not suitable in many of the HCC cases, patients are mostly given palliative support cares or transarterial chemoembolization or systemic chemotherapies. However, HCC is well known to be a highly chemoresistant tumour, and the response rate is <10,20%. To this end, alternative medicines are being actively sought from other sources with hopes to halt the disease's progression or even eliminate the tumours. Traditional Chinese herbal medicine has begun to gain popularity worldwide for promoting healthcare as well as disease prevention, and been used as conventional or complementary medicines for both treatable and incurable diseases in Asia and the West. In this article, we discuss the laboratory findings and clinical trial studies of Chinese herbal medicines (particularly small molecule compounds) for the treatment of liver disease ranging from fibrosis to liver cancer. [source]


Tenuifolin, an extract derived from tenuigenin, inhibits amyloid-, secretion in vitro

ACTA PHYSIOLOGICA, Issue 4 2009
J. Lv
Abstract Aim:, Previous studies have shown that tenuigenin, a crude extract of Polygala tenuifolia Willd. that is commonly used in traditional Chinese herbal medicine for memory loss, can reduce the secretion of A, from cultured cells. However, the mechanism underlying this effect and the active compound derived from tenuigenin is unknown. In this study, a purified component of tenuigenin, tenuifolin, was examined and revealed to be an effective compound in vitro. Methods:, A, secretion from three sets of COS-7 cells, each carrying a plasmid expressing a different form of APP was examined following the treatment with tenuifolin. Initially, tenuifolin was determined to have no inherent toxicity to either the transfected or wild type cells at the effective concentrations. Cells were then treated with 0.5,2.0 ,g mL,1 tenuifolin for 12 h and their media were examined via an ELISA for A,1-40 and A,-42. Results:, We found that treatment with 2.0 ,g mL,1 tenuifolin significantly decreased A, secretion from COS-7 cells without altering the ratio of A,1-40 and A,-42. This effect is most probably due to inhibition of the ,-site APP cleaving enzyme as A, secretion was not inhibited from cells expressing the C99 fragment. Conclusion:, Tenuifolin is an effective compound from tenuigenin. We believe that this finding should lead the way for future experiments to determine the exact mechanism for tenuifolin's effect on A, secretion. [source]


Analysis of major alkaloids in Rhizoma coptidis by capillary electrophoresis-electrospray-time of flight mass spectrometry with different background electrolytes

ELECTROPHORESIS, Issue 10 2008
Junhui Chen
Abstract CE-based techniques with DAD and detection ESI-TOF-MS have been developed for the analysis of seven protoberberine alkaloids and one aporphinoid alkaloid in Huanglian (Rhizoma coptidis), a well-known traditional Chinese herbal medicine. One aqueous BGE and one nonaqueous BGE were developed for CE-DAD and CE-MS analyses, and the CE-ESI-TOF-MS conditions including nebulizer gas pressure, the sheath-liquid composition, its flow rate, etc. were optimized. Eight main alkaloids in R. coptidis could be separated with baseline resolution by CE-DAD with these two different BGEs, and identified by TOF-MS analysis. Moreover, three major alkaloids (berberine, palmatine, and jatrorrhizine) could be quantified accurately by CE-DAD and CE-MS with the BGE system consisting of 50:50 v/v water and ACN containing 50,mM ammonium acetate at pH,6.8. Both techniques provided similar LODs and could be applied with confidence within similar linear dynamic range. However, reproducibility and speed of analysis were better using CE-DAD. When the CE technique was compared with the RP-HPLC method, the CE-DAD and CE-MS methods provided greater efficiency and faster analysis speed, i.e., achieving baseline resolution for all the eight main basic compounds in less than 14,min. The CE method, as a viable alternative to HPLC, is suitable for use as a routine procedure for the rapid identification and quantification of basic compounds in herbal or natural product applications. [source]


The in-vivo effects of sho-saiko-to, a traditional Chinese herbal medicine, on two cytochrome P450 enzymes (1A2 and 3A) and xanthine oxidase in man

JOURNAL OF PHARMACY AND PHARMACOLOGY: AN INTERNATI ONAL JOURNAL OF PHARMACEUTICAL SCIENCE, Issue 11 2003
Junji Saruwatari
ABSTRACT The Chinese herbal medicine sho-saiko-to is a mixture of seven herbal components (Bupleurum root, Pinellia tuber, Scutellaria root, Jujube fruit, Ginseng root, Glycyrrhiza root and Ginger rhizome) that is widely administered to patients with chronic hepatitis in Japan. We assessed the effects of sho-saiko-to on the activity of cytochrome P450 (CYP) 1A2, CYP3A and xanthine oxidase (XO) in man. Twenty-six healthy subjects were studied to evaluate their baseline activity of CYP1A2 and XO by the respective urinary metabolic ratios of an 8-h urine sample after an oral 150-mg dose of caffeine and of CYP3A by a urinary excretion ratio of 6,-hydroxycortisol (6,-HC) to free cortisol (FC). Thereafter, the subjects received a twice-daily 2.5-g dose of sho-saiko-to for five days, and underwent the caffeine test on day 1 and day 5. The mean activity of CYP1A2 decreased by 16% on both day 1 and day 5 compared with the baseline (P = 0.001). The mean activity of XO also significantly decreased by 25% on day 1 and 20% on day 5 (P < 0.0001) compared with the baseline value. The activity of CYP3A tended to be lower on day 5 than the baseline (P = 0.146). It is concluded that sho-saiko-to reduces CYP1A2 and XO activity in man. [source]


In defence of traditional Chinese herbal medicine

ANAESTHESIA, Issue 3 2003
I. Hosbach
No abstract is available for this article. [source]


Ultrasonic extraction and HPLC determination of anthraquinones, aloe-emodine, emodine, rheine, chrysophanol and physcione, in roots of Polygoni multiflori

PHYTOCHEMICAL ANALYSIS, Issue 4 2009
Yue Jiao
Abstract Introduction Polygoni multiflori, one of traditional Chinese herbal medicines for the treatment of various diseases commonly associated with aging, is known to contain active anthraquinone ingredients. However, the content of the anthraquinones varies among P. multiflori samples with collection season and sites. Thus, simple, reliable and accurate analytical methods for determining of anthraquinones in P. multiflori products are needed for the quality control and pharmacological studies. Objective To develop an HPLC method for the simultaneous determination of five anthraquinones, aloe-emodine, rheine, emodine, chrysophanol and physcione, in the roots of P. multiflori. Methodology Anthraquinones were extracted from the roots of P. multiflori using aqueous alcohol solutions or hot water under ultrasonication. Separation and quantitation of anthraquinones was accomplished using a reversed-phase C18 column with the mobile phase of methanol,water,phosphoric acid (600:400:1), and the detection wavelength of 254 nm. Results Seventy per cent aqueous ethanol showed the highest extraction efficiency for anthraquinones from roots of P. multiflori when compared with four other extraction solvents tested. All calibration curves were linear over the concentration range tested with the square of correlation coefficients >0.999. The detection limits (S/N = 3) were 0.89, 1.1, 1.6, 1.7 and 2.0 ng for chrysophanol, aloe-emodine, rheine, emodine and physcione, respectively. Emodine and physcione were found in the samples tested at concentrations of 0.341 and 0.197 mg/g, respectively. Conclusion The described HPLC methods are simple, accurate and selective techniques for separation and quantification of anthraquinones in roots of P. multiflori and other plant samples. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]