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Cabbage (Brassica oleracea var. capitata) is not only a widely known vegetable but also a valuable medicinal plant. Cabbage's pharmacological properties were described already in antiquity. Numerous reports, published in recent years, confirm cabbage's healing properties, leading to a deeper analysis of its applications in the traditional healing practices of Polish rural communities. The study aimed to analyze the exploiting of cabbage in Polish folk medicine from 16th to 20th century. The elaboration bases mainly on Polish-language bibliography, from which a little number of papers was published online, so the presented review has the particular value to make available this unique knowledge to an international readership. In addition, the analysis created a basis for the future research of pharmacological application of cabbage and its processed products, especially lacto-fermented, commonly used to preserve this vegetable for winter months in the Polish climatic zone. The analysis of the therapeutic use of cabbage in Polish folk medicine was carried out on the basis of Polish-language historical sources dating to the period from the first written evidence till the end of the 20th century, covering the areas inhabited by Polish population. With the perspective of a comprehensive analysis of the medicinal use of cabbage, the information is presented against the background of its benefits in the folk medicine of other ethnic communities. Polish folk communities diffusely exploit all parts of cabbage plants, and its preparations, including leaves, stems, seeds, sauerkraut, and the sauerkraut's juice as a natural medicine. The mentioned raw materials were applied in the treatment of numerous ailments, especially of the digestive tract, skin, burns, frostbites, to relieve pain, fight parasites, and of gynecological disorders related to childbirth and children feeding. Cabbage pharmacological applications covered the therapy of tuberculosis, measles, and jaundice. Cabbage and its by-products were used in the cure of farm animals, especially in the perinatal period, parasite and microbial infections, or to improve the resistance against diseases and the overall fitness. The healing properties of raw materials and products of lactic acid fermentation of white cabbage are confirmed by historical documents. Ethnographic sources indicate their wide application in Polish folk medicine and show the perception and classification of disease entities by Polish rural communities in the analyzed period. The collected data constitute background for further research on the phytochemical use of this plant in modern medicine. [Display omitted] • Use of cabbage in Polish folk medicine from 16th to 20th century. • It has shown significant use in Polish traditional medicine. • The used of cabbage and its by-products in the cure of farm animals. • The complete database that can be used in modern pharmacology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many developing countries, populations rely on traditional medicine for primary health care, which have infiltrated commercial markets globally as natural remedies are generally regarded as safe. Traditional and natural remedies are adapted and expanded in commercial products and product ranges to provide alternatives for various diseases and illnesses. These products resemble very little of the traditional use and application and adverse effects are observed in several cases. Some of the herbs and botanical formulations therefore, are not as safe as are commonly contemplated. This paper discusses some plants that are used as food or medicine. These plants are known to contain chemical components that have been identified as genotoxic carcinogens. Often contradictory results are obtained with beneficial and adverse effects reported. The concentration, biotransformation and metabolism of these compounds, as well as the matrix effect, affect the outcome of these results, therefore not providing a clear picture of the risk associated with the use and consumption of these plants. This paper focuses on plants that are accepted as healthy, however contain compounds that are genotoxic and carcinogenic. We further highlight the risks in use of these plants where thorough studies have been conducted in various food and plant products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thirty-five herbal formulations used in this current work are utilized as anti-cariogenic agents in Thai traditional medicine. Acidogenic properties play a crucial role in the initiation of dental caries caused by Streptococcus mutans , and a quorum sensing (QS) system is an associated virulence factor in dental caries. The current work aimed to determine the anti-acidogenic effect of these polyherbal formulas against S. mutans and explore their anti-QS activity using Chromobacterium violaceum as a biosensor. Ethanol and water extracts from the formulas were evaluated for their anti-acidogenic effects using glycolytic pH drop assays. Qualification and quantification of anti-QS activity indicated by the level of violacein production in C. violaceum were performed using paper disc-diffusion and flask incubation assays, respectively. Among the extracts tested, THF-DC 02 and THF-DC 04 significantly inhibited the acidogenesis of S. mutans in a dose-dependent manner without affecting the cell viability. THF-DC 20 and THF-DC 29 sharply reduced the violacein production of C. violaceum , indicating the promising anti-QS activity of these extracts. The findings of the present study, preliminarily propose that the polyherbal formulas THF-DC 02, THF-DC 04, THF-DC 20, and THF-DC 29 produce promising anti-acidogenic or anti-QS activities. The anti-acidogenic effect of THF-DC 04 may possibly act by interrupting streptococcal membrane enzymes via its herbal components: Alpinia galanga (L.) Willd., Albizia myriophylla Benth., Avicennia marina subsp. eucalyptifolia (Valeton) J.Everett and Ocimum tenuiflorum L. The anti-QS activity of THF-DC 20 and THF-DC 29 could be due to their herbal ingredients, including Piper betle L., Terminalia bellirica (Gaertn.) Roxb., Terminalia chebula Retz., and Syzygium aromaticum (L.) Merr. & L.M.Perry. [Display omitted] • The 35 Thai herbal formulas used for dental caries (THF-DC) were studied. • THF-DC showed evidences support the therapeutic efficacy. • THF-DC 02 and THF-DC 04 inhibited the acidogenesis of S. mutans. • THF-DC 20 and THF-DC 29 showed anti-quorum sensing activity in C. violaceum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This paper shall first investigate the informatics areas and applications of the four Traditional Medicine systems - Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), Ayurveda, Traditional Arabic and Islamic Medicine and Traditional Malay Medicine. Then, this paper shall examine the national informatics infrastructure initiatives in the four respective countries that support the Traditional Medicine systems. Challenges of implementing informatics in Traditional Medicine Systems shall also be discussed.Methods: The literature was sourced from four databases: Ebsco Host, IEEE Explore, Proquest and Google scholar. The search term used was "Traditional Medicine", "informatics", "informatics infrastructure", "traditional Chinese medicine", "Ayurveda", "traditional Arabic and Islamic medicine", and "traditional malay medicine". A combination of the search terms above was also executed to enhance the searching process. A search was also conducted in Google to identify miscellaneous books, publications, and organization websites using the same terms.Results: Amongst major advancements in TCM and Ayurveda are bioinformatics, development of Traditional Medicine databases for decision system support, data mining and image processing. Traditional Chinese Medicine differentiates itself from other Traditional Medicine systems with documented ISO Standards to support the standardization of TCM. Informatics applications in Traditional Arabic and Islamic Medicine are mostly ehealth applications that focus more on spiritual healing, Islamic obligations and prophetic traditions. Literature regarding development of health informatics to support Traditional Malay Medicine is still insufficient. Major informatics infrastructure that is common in China and India are automated insurance payment systems for Traditional Medicine treatment. National informatics infrastructure in Middle East and Malaysia mainly cater for modern medicine. Other infrastructure such as telemedicine and hospital information systems focus its implementation in modern medicine or are not implemented and strategized at a national level to support Traditional Medicine.Conclusion: Informatics may not be able to address all the emerging areas of Traditional Medicine because the concepts in Traditional Medicine system of medicine are different from modern system, though the aim may be same, i.e., to give relief to the patient. Thus, there is a need to synthesize Traditional Medicine systems and informatics with involvements from modern system of medicine. Future research works may include filling the gaps of informatics areas and integrate national informatics infrastructure with established Traditional Medicine systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Both biotic and abiotic factors influence secondary metabolite production. • Genetic variation is the principal intrinsic factor for chemical phenotypes in plants. • Chemotypes can often be linked to specific geographical regions. • Contaminents and adulterants in plant material may have detrimental effects on human health. Plant-based medicines and herbal remedies are considered to be healthy, pure and safe as it is obtained from natural resources. The increased interest and use of plant-based traditional medicines and herbal remedies, however, requires that the knowledge of users regarding these medicines' health, safety and quality are addressed. The majority of medicinal plant material are harvested from wild stocks, where intrinsic and extrinsic factors result in varied production of phytochemical constituents. Plant material with inconsistent concentrations of biologically active compounds may affect the efficacy and safety of the medicine. Additionally, plants produce secondary metabolites to deter, stun, poison or kill threatening species. Some biologically active secondary metabolites may thus be mutagenic, genotoxic or carcinogenic. The quality of traditional medicines and herbal remedies are often compromised by the presence of contaminants from either natural or anthropogenic sources, which may result in adverse effects and even death. This paper provides an overview of the abiotic and biotic factors that may contribute towards the variability of bioactive concentrations. Additionally, contaminants that may affect the quality of traditional medicines and which in turn, may result in adverse effects are reviewed while recorded statistics of poisoning after the use of traditional medicines raises serious concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Turmeric (Curcuma longa) has long been known in Southeast Asia as a medicinal plant and been used as folk remedies to treat minor illnesses like diarrhea or skin diseases. Recent studies on turmeric have shown numerous pharmacological properties such as anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-pathogenic including anti-viral protease activities. All these beneficial properties make turmeric a suitable candidate for the discovery of novel protease inhibitors (PIs). PIs are commonly found in all organisms to regulate biological processes. In plant, PIs are reported to play important roles in plant defense mechanism. A number of these PIs have been genetically engineered into crop plants to enhance protection against microorganism and pest insects. However over time, the pathogens and pest insects are slowly adapting to the current strategies and overcome the additional defense barrier. Hence, this study was conducted to identify novel PIs genes from methyl jasmonate (MeJA)-treated turmeric plants through the whole transcriptome sequencing approach. From the raw data reads obtained from the RNA-sequencing of MeJA-treated leaf tissues, a single reference transcriptome was assembled de novo using Trinity software. A total of 105,529 contiguous sequences were obtained. Sequence annotation and homology search were performed onto several protein databases such as Uniprot, Pfam, GO and KEGG which resulted in around 50% of the transcripts showed similarity hits to known proteins. The individual expression profile of the transcripts from the control and MeJA-treated turmeric samples were generated and compared in order to identify differential expressed genes. A total of 4274 transcripts had been identified to be differentially expressed where there were 1599 upregulated transcripts and 2715 downregulated transcripts. A total of 21 transcripts showed sequence similarity hits to PIs families and three of the transcripts were identified to be upregulated from the MeJA treatment. These identified PIs transcript can serve as candidate genes for further functional studies and applications. • The paper highlights the attempt and discovery of novel protease inhibitors (PIs) which play a major role in plant defense mechanism from Turmeric (Curcuma longa). • The putative transcripts were obtained from methyl jasmonate (MeJA)-treated turmeric plants through the whole transcriptome sequencing (NGS) approach. • The identified PIs transcript can serve as candidate genes for further functional studies and applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Practices of biopiracy to use genetic resources and indigenous knowledge by Western companies without benefit-sharing of those, who generated the traditional knowledge, can be understood as form of neocolonialism.Hypothesis: The One-World Medicine concept attempts to merge the best of traditional medicine from developing countries and conventional Western medicine for the sake of patients around the globe.Study Design: Based on literature searches in several databases, a concept paper has been written. Legislative initiatives of the United Nations culminated in the Nagoya protocol aim to protect traditional knowledge and regulate benefit-sharing with indigenous communities. The European community adopted the Nagoya protocol, and the corresponding regulations will be implemented into national legislation among the member states. Despite pleasing progress, infrastructural problems of the health care systems in developing countries still remain. Current approaches to secure primary health care offer only fragmentary solutions at best. Conventional medicine from industrialized countries cannot be afforded by the impoverished population in the Third World. Confronted with exploding costs, even health systems in Western countries are endangered to burst. Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is popular among the general public in industrialized countries, although the efficacy is not sufficiently proven according to the standards of evidence-based medicine. CAM is often available without prescription as over-the-counter products with non-calculated risks concerning erroneous self-medication and safety/toxicity issues. The concept of integrative medicine attempts to combine holistic CAM approaches with evidence-based principles of conventional medicine.Conclusion: To realize the concept of One-World Medicine, a number of standards have to be set to assure safety, efficacy and applicability of traditional medicine, e.g. sustainable production and quality control of herbal products, performance of placebo-controlled, double-blind, randomized clinical trials, phytovigilance, as well as education of health professionals and patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: When in 1992 the Convention on Biological Diversity was adopted, it was a response to centuries of exploitative use of biodiversity and to a lack of recognition of the rights of the countries and regions of origin. At the same time, it was an outcome of the increasing drive, especially in many European and American countries, to ascertain more equitable sharing of wealth between the global North and South. It is a result of negotiations between states and driven by political consensus.Aim: With this review we aim to assess the situation 25 years after the adoption of the CBD, provide an overview on how we got to the current framework and offer a perspective on how such access rights and equitable benefit sharing can be ascertained.Outcomes and Discussion: Without doubt the CBD has resulted in a new framework for providing and securing access to biodiversity and for equitable benefit sharing. It has since been developed and amended in numerous treaties and protocols, most recently the Nagoya Protocol. This development is both driven by the historical experience of many countries in the exploitative extractions of biodiversity, and indigenous peoples' drive for the recognition of their rights. Examples of exploitative use of biodiversity include the species yielding quinine and rubber. Using Lepidium meyenii Walp. as an example, we assess the current patent basis and highlight why in this case equitable benefit sharing proved to be impossible. Today, there are well-established principles in place to establish intellectual property rights, both with respect to a country's ownership of genetic resources, and a research entity's invention based on them. There remains, however, a lack of investment as well as research and development opportunities based on these internationally binding agreements. In line with the aims of our review, this paper includes an overview on how the current patenting system can be used to ensure that the goals of the CBD can be achieved.Conclusion: In the context of the centuries of exploitative use of biodiversity, 25 years is a short time span and this review reiterates Posey and Dutfields' call (1996) to companies or other outside organization for developing 'a relationship in which the community is an equal partner'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In China, traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs) have been used in clinical applications for thousands of years. The successful hyphenation of high-Performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and mass spectrometry (MS) has been applied widely in TCMs and biological samples analysis. Undoubtedly, HPLC/MS technique has facilitated the understanding of the treatment mechanism of TCMs. We reviewed more than 350 published papers within the last 5 years on HPLC/MS in the analysis of TCMs. The present review focused on the applications of HPLC/MS in the component analysis, metabolites analysis, and pharmacokinetics of TCMs etc. 50% of the literature is related to the component analysis of TCMs, which show that this field is the most populär type of research. In the metabolites analysis, HPLC coupled with electrospray ionization quadrupole time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry has been demonstrated to be the powerful tool for the characterization of structural features and fragmentation behavior patterns. This paper presented a brief overview of the applications of HPLC/MS in the analysis of TCMs. HPLC/MS in the fingerprint analysis is reviewed elsewhere. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract News from traditional media has been used to facilitate the prediction of stock movement for a long time. However, in recent times, online social networks (OSN) have played an increasing significant role as a platform for information sharing. News content posted on these OSN provides very useful insight about public moods. In this paper, we carefully select official accounts from China's largest online social networks — Sina Weibo and analyze the news content crawled from these accounts by extracting sentiment features and Latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) features. We then input these features together with technical indicators into a novel hybrid model called RNN-boost to predict the stock volatility in the Chinese stock market. The Shanghai-Shenzhen 300 Stock Index (HS300) is the use case for this research. Experimental results show that our model outperforms other prevalent methods and can achieve a good prediction performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphical abstract Highlights • 79 prenylated flavonoid glucosides were firstly identified in Epimedium alpinum from Croatia. • A new skeleton of prenylated flavonoid glucosides were found based on MS and NMR. • Different parts of Epimedium alpinum L. had been compared. Abstract Herbra Epimedii is a common and widely used traditional Chinese medicine for thousands of years. Epimedium alpinum L. is one of the representative herb of Epimedium species in Europe, which is used as a diaphoretic and applied in breast illness in folk medicine. In this paper, an efficient UHPLC-Q-TOF-MS method was established for rapid discovery and identification of prenylated flavonoid glucosides in E. alpinum from Croatia. Based on the MS2 fragment pathways, rules and intensity of 12 reference compounds in negative and positive ion mode, the kinds of substituents and site of saccharides linkage of 79 prenylated flavonoid glucosides were tentatively characterized. Different substituents at C-3 and C-4 in the ring B formed four skeletons, including skeleton A with hydrogen and hydroxyl, skeleton B with hydrogen and methoxyl, skeleton C with hydroxyl and methoxyl and skeleton D with two hydroxyls, were identified in E. alpinum. Based on our knowledge, the skeleton D was first identified in herb medicine and 23 new compounds with skeleton D were characterized. According to these findings, prenylated flavonoids glucosides of 40 leaves, rhizomes, buds and tissue cultural products of E. alpinum were further systematically investigated. Chemicals in E. alpinum from Croatia were obviously different from those in E. koreanum Nakai and E. brevicomu Maxim from China via principal component analysis (PCA). This study provide an effective strategy for new compounds discovery in herbal extract, which is helpful to quality control and pharmacological evaluation of E. alpinum from Croatia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The genus Artemisia consists of about 500 species, occurring throughout the world. Some very important drug leads have been discovered from this genus, notably artemisinin, the well known anti-malarial drug isolated from the Chinese herb Artemisia annua. The genus is also known for its aromatic nature and hence research has been focussed on the chemical compositions of the volatile secondary metabolites obtained from various Artemisia species. In the southern African region, A. afra is one of the most popular and commonly used herbal medicines. It is used to treat various ailments ranging from coughs and colds to malaria and diabetes. Although it is one of the most popular local herbal medicines, only limited scientific research, mainly focussing on the volatile secondary metabolites content, has been conducted on this species. The aim of this review was therefore to collect all available scientific literature published on A. afra and combine it into this paper. In this review, a general overview will be given on the morphology, taxonomy and geographical distribution of A. afra. The major focus will however be on the secondary metabolites, mainly the volatile secondary metabolites, which have been identified from this species. In addition all of the reported biological activities of the extracts derived from this species have been included as well as the literature on the pharmacology and toxicology. We aim at bringing together most of the available scientific research conducted on this species, which is currently scattered across various publications, into this review paper. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Berberine is a traditional medicine that has multiple medicinal and agricultural applications. However, little is known about whether berberine can be a bioactive molecule toward carbohydrate-active enzymes, which play numerous vital roles in the life process. In this study, berberine and its analogs were discovered to be competitive inhibitors of glycoside hydrolase family 20 β-N-acetyl-D-hexosaminidase (GH20 Hex) and GH18 chitinase from both humans and the insect pest Ostrinia furnacalis. Berberine and its analog SYSU-1 inhibit insect GH20 Hex from O. furnacalis (Of Hex1), with Ki values of 12 and 8.5μM, respectively. Co-crystallization of berberine and its analog SYSU-1 in complex with Of Hex1 revealed that the positively charged conjugate plane of berberine forms л-л stacking interactions with Trp490, which are vital to its inhibitory activity. Moreover, the 1,3-dioxole group of berberine binds an unexplored pocket formed by Trp322, Trp483, and Val484, which also contributes to its inhibitory activity. Berberine was also found to be an inhibitor of human GH20 Hex (HsHexB), human GH18 chitinase (HsCht and acidic mammalian chitinase), and insect GH18 chitinase (Of ChtI). Besides GH18 and GH20 enzymes, berberine was shown to weakly inhibit human GH84 O-Glc NAcase (HsOGA) and Saccharomyces cerevisiae GH63 α-glucosidase I (ScGluI). By analyzing the published crystal structures, berberine was revealed to bind with its targets in an identical mechanism, namely via л-л stacking and electrostatic interactions with the aromatic and acidic residues in the binding pockets. This paper reports new molecular targets of berberine and may provide a berberine-based scaffold for developing multitarget drugs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although small talk has conventionally been treated as marginal and unimportant compared with core business talk, its value in understanding institutional norms and power relations has been recognized in many workplace contexts. However, in-depth analysis of the dynamics of small talk is still under-researched in clinical contexts. This paper explores where and how small talk is positioned, initiated, and closed between participants in two types of medical practices that co-exist in China: Traditional Chinese Medicine and Western Medicine. Analysis of 69 consultations suggests that small talk permeates into the boundaries of talk. The findings also demonstrate a marked clinical difference in relation to the distribution and discourse functions of small talk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Classical pharmacology has been the basis for the discovery of new chemical entities with therapeutic effects for decades. In natural product research, compounds are generally tested in vivo only after full in vitro characterization. However drug screening using this methodology is expensive, time-consuming and very often inefficient. Reverse pharmacology, also called bedside-to-bench, is a research approach based on the traditional knowledge and relates to reversing the classical laboratory to clinic pathway to a clinic to laboratory practice. It is a trans-disciplinary approach focused on traditional knowledge, experimental observations and clinical experiences. This paper is an overview of the reverse pharmacology approach applied to the decoction of Argemone mexicana, used as an antimalarial traditional medicine in Mali. A. mexicana appeared as the most effective traditional medicine for the treatment of uncomplicated falciparum malaria in Mali, and the clinical efficacy of the decoction was comparable to artesunate–amodiaquine as previously published. Four stages of the reverse pharmacology process will be described here with a special emphasis on the results for stage 4. Briefly, allocryptopine, protopine and berberine were isolated through bioguided fractionation, and had their identity confirmed by spectroscopic analysis. The three alkaloids showed antiparasitic activity in vitro , of which allocryptopine and protopine were selective towards Plasmodium falciparum . Furthermore, the amount of the three active alkaloids in the decoction was determined by quantitative NMR, and preliminary in vivo assays were conducted. On the basis of these results, the reverse pharmacology approach is discussed and further pharmacokinetic studies appear to be necessary in order to determine whether these alkaloids can be considered as phytochemical markers for quality control and standardization of an improved traditional medicine made with this plant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Background: Cissampelos sympodialis Eichl. (Menispermaceae) is used in folk medicine for the treatment of respiratory conditions such as bronchitis and asthma. The aqueous fraction of the hydroalcoholic extract of its leaves has shown immunomodulatory, bronchodilator and anti-inflammatory activities. However, there is no data available on the pharmacognostic quality control of its leaves. Objective: The aim of the present study was to characterize the drug material obtained from the leaves of C. sympodialis, with the determination of WHO recommended assays, histochemistry of leaf sections and HPLC determination of its main bioactive alkaloid, warifteine. Materials and methods: Three batches of leaves were collected and histochemical and phytochemical analyses were performed to screen for alkaloids, phenolics, terpenoids, lipids, polysacharides and saponins. Pharmacopeial assays for the plant material were also conducted and the bisbenzylisoquinoline alkaloid warifteine was quantified by HPLC analysis. Results: The histochemistry of leaf sections from C. sympodialis revealed the presence of lipids, polysaccharides, phenolic compounds and alkaloids, mainly as part of idioblast secretions. These results were confirmed by general phytochemical screening reactions conducted with the leaf hydroalcoholic extract (presence of alkaloids, steroids, tannins, flavonoids and saponins). General pharmacopeial tests conducted with the leaves were within accepted standards. The warifteine content was similar for the three batches tested (0.004–0.006%). Conclusion: The physicochemical parameters and the morphological results presented in this paper can be used as basis for the preparation of a monograph on C. sympodialis leaves. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Although African patients use both conventional or modern and traditional healthcare simultaneously, it has been proven that 80% of people rely on African traditional medicine (ATM). ATM includes medical activities stemming from practices, customs and traditions which were integral to the distinctive African cultures. It is based mainly on the oral transfer of knowledge, with the risk of losing critical knowledge. Moreover, practices differ according to the regions and the availability of medicinal plants. Therefore, it is necessary to compile tacit, disseminated and complex knowledge from various Tradi-Practitioners (TP) in order to determine interesting patterns for treating a given disease. Knowledge engineering methods for traditional medicine are useful to model suitably complex information needs, formalize knowledge of domain experts and highlight the effective practices for their integration to conventional medicine. The work described in this paper presents an approach which addresses two issues. First it aims at proposing a formal representation model of ATM knowledge and practices to facilitate their sharing and reusing. Then, it aims at providing a visual reasoning mechanism for selecting best available procedures and medicinal plants to treat diseases. The approach is based on the use of the Delphi method for capturing knowledge from various experts which necessitate reaching a consensus. Conceptual graph formalism is used to model ATM knowledge with visual reasoning capabilities and processes. The nested conceptual graphs are used to visually express the semantic meaning of Computational Tree Logic (CTL) constructs that are useful for formal specification of temporal properties of ATM domain knowledge. Our approach presents the advantage of mitigating knowledge loss with conceptual development assistance to improve the quality of ATM care (medical diagnosis and therapeutics), but also patient safety (drug monitoring). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this paper, artificial neural network architecture is introduced to predict the body constitution in traditional Chinese medicine (BCTCM) yin-yang index. According to the characteristics of BCTCM, the collected data is more consistent with the exact value of the characteristic parameters of BCTCM of the samples with pre-processing the inputting data by the median, and quasi-Newton algorithm is used to train the network model to accelerate the convergence speed of network training. Experiments show that, the average of absolute of relative error of predicted value of BCTCM yinyang index compared with the observed value for 10 independent samples validating neural network model is 3.37%.Therefore, the prediction model of BCTCM yin-yang index with BP neural network is doable. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Objective: Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is a scientific discipline, which develops the related theories from the long-term clinical practices. The large-scale clinical data are the core empirical knowledge source for TCM research. This paper introduces a clinical data warehouse (CDW) system, which incorporates the structured electronic medical record (SEMR) data for medical knowledge discovery and TCM clinical decision support (CDS). Materials and methods: We have developed the clinical reference information model (RIM) and physical data model to manage the various information entities and their relationships in TCM clinical data. An extraction-transformation-loading (ETL) tool is implemented to integrate and normalize the clinical data from different operational data sources. The CDW includes online analytical processing (OLAP) and complex network analysis (CNA) components to explore the various clinical relationships. Furthermore, the data mining and CNA methods are used to discover the valuable clinical knowledge from the data. Results: The CDW has integrated 20,000 TCM inpatient data and 20,000 outpatient data, which contains manifestations (e.g. symptoms, physical examinations and laboratory test results), diagnoses and prescriptions as the main information components. We propose a practical solution to accomplish the large-scale clinical data integration and preprocessing tasks. Meanwhile, we have developed over 400 OLAP reports to enable the multidimensional analysis of clinical data and the case-based CDS. We have successfully conducted several interesting data mining applications. Particularly, we use various classification methods, namely support vector machine, decision tree and Bayesian network, to discover the knowledge of syndrome differentiation. Furthermore, we have applied association rule and CNA to extract the useful acupuncture point and herb combination patterns from the clinical prescriptions. Conclusion: A CDW system consisting of TCM clinical RIM, ETL, OLAP and data mining as the core components has been developed to facilitate the tasks of TCM knowledge discovery and CDS. We have conducted several OLAP and data mining tasks to explore the empirical knowledge from the TCM clinical data. The CDW platform would be a promising infrastructure to make full use of the TCM clinical data for scientific hypothesis generation, and promote the development of TCM from individualized empirical knowledge to large-scale evidence-based medicine. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper reviews theory of DNB (Dynamical Network Biomarkers) and its applications including both modern medicine and traditional medicine. We show that omics data such as gene/protein expression profiles can be effectively used to detect pre-disease states before critical transitions from healthy states to disease states by using the DNB theory. The DNB theory with big biological data is expected to lead to ultra-early precision and preventive medicine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Mangrove and halophytic plants occur along the coastal areas of Tamil Nadu, south India and these plants have been used in traditional medicine for centuries. Heavy metals are known to pose a potential threat to terrestrial and aquatic biota. However, little is known on the toxic levels of heavy metals found in mangrove and halophytic plants that are used in traditional medicine in India. To understand heavy metal toxicity, we investigated the bioconcentration factors (BCF) of heavy metals in leaves collected from eight mangroves and five halophytes in the protected Pichavaram mangrove forest reserve in Tamil Nadu State, south India. Data presented in this paper describe the impact of essential (Cu, Fe, Mg, Mn and Zn) and non-essential/environmentally toxic trace metals (Hg, Pb and Sn) in mangrove and halophytic medicinal plants. The concentrations of Pb among 13 plant species were higher than the normal range of contamination reported for plants. The average concentration of Hg in the halophytic plants (0.43±0.37μg/g) was seven times higher than mangrove plants (0.06±0.03μg/g) and it indicated pollutants from industrial sources affecting halophytes more than mangroves. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Annona coriacea Mart., popularly known as "marolo", "araticum" and "araticum-liso" is a species distributed in Paraguay and Brazil, and easily found in Caatinga, Cerrado, and Pantanal biomes. The araticum has been used in folk medicine to treat stomatitis, neuralgia, rheumatism, headaches, furuncle, ulcers, and dermatitis. This systematic review aimed to provide a comprehensive overview of the ethnomedicinal use, phytochemistry, and pharmacological activity of A. coriacea. A search for scientific articles of electronic databases (Science Direct, PubMed, Lilacs, Scopus, Google Scholar, Scielo, and Web of Science) was performed identifying studies published until November 2020. All papers considering traditional medicinal uses, phytochemistry, and pharmacological properties were included. Forty-six articles (n = 212 subjects) met the inclusion criteria set for this review. Of the 46 articles reviewed, 34 were focused on biological activity investigations, while 12 were limited to phytochemical studies. These studies showed the presence of a diversity of secondary metabolites such as acetogenins, sesquiterpenes, alkaloids, flavonoids, and diterpenes. To date, pharmacological tests have demonstrated significant biological activities of this plant, being the most promising anticancer, anti-inflammatory, antiulcer, and insecticide activities. Additionally, the medicinal utilization of A. coriacea appears to be promising, supporting its possible uses for human health with antioxidant, anxiolytic, antiulcer, insecticide, and antiparasitic activities. Ultimately, comprehensive studies involving clinical trials are required to validate the existing traditional practices and their related health benefits scientifically. • The ethnobotany records several medicinal properties of leaves, seeds and roots of Annona coriacea. • Phytochemical constitution of A. coriacea is little explored. • Several bioactivities reported, including anticancer and anti-inflammatory. • Clinical trial studies have not yet been reported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]