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Toxicological data demonstrate that nanoplastics (NPs) can cause direct adverse health effects. However, a method for quantifying NPs in biological samples is lacking to date. In this study, a diatomite associated coagulation-sedimentation extraction (CSE) protocol was developed to selectively enrich polystyrene nanoplastics (PS-NP) from microplastics (PS-MP) in the digest of animal tissues, which were then analyzed using pyrolysis gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. We demonstrate that 0.02 g of 7-μm diatomite can selectively adsorb 70-nm PS-NP in 5 mL oyster digest. The method works in the range of 0.006-5 μg PS-NP per 0.5 g wet weight tissue, which has been verified via samples of environmentally contaminated oysters and chow diet PS-NP-treated C57BL/6 mice (digestive tract, kidney, and liver tissues). The particle size-dependent colloidization or buoyancy theoretically supported the general CSE procedure. This work will pave the way for assessing human exposure to NPs and associated health risks.

An unprecedented new skeleton compound (1R, 10R, 11S)-10,11-dimethyl-4-formyl-2,9-dioxa-bicyclo [5.4.0] undeca-4,6-dien-3-one (1), monoterpenoids and monoterpene glycoside picrocrocinic ester (2), epijasminoside B (3) and 6′-O-(3-methoxyl-4-hydroxyl-coumaroyl)-epijasminoside B (4), along with 26 known compounds, were obtained from Zhuyeqing Liquor. These compounds were identified mainly by analyzing their NMR, HR-ESI–MS and CD data. The isolated compounds were screened against alcohol induced HepaG 2 toxicity for hepatoprotective assay. Compounds 10, 19, 21 and 26 displayed the highest potency against alcohol induced HepaG 2 toxicity with the cell viability ratio 41.21, 56.91, 67.69 and 70.32 % respectively.

Four new compounds methyl-6-(6-(3,4-dimethoxy)-benzalacryloyl-β- d -glucosyl)-O-β- d -glucopyranoside (1), (5R)-(2E)-5-hydroxy-2-methyl-hepta-2-ene-1,6-dione (2), 6″-O-trans-p-methoxy-coumaroyl genipin gentiobioside (3), and 7-methoxy-isobiflorin (4), along with 57 known compounds, were obtained from Zhuyeqing Liquor. These compounds were identified mainly by analyzing their NMR and HR-ESI-MS data. The anti-inflammatory activity of all these isolates against lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated RAW 264.7 macrophage cells were evaluated and compounds 1–61 exhibited various degrees in the anti-inflammatory activities screen. Among them, compounds 24, 26, 43 and 44 showed the best anti-inflammatory activities with the NO inhibition ratio 56.93%, 66.03%, 50.17% and 55.45%, respectively. It seems that all isolates were not active at less than 50 μM.

Background Zhuyeqing Liquor (ZYQL) is a famous traditional Chinese functional liquor. For quality control of ZYQL products, quantitative analysis using high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with photodiode array detector (HPLC-PDA) was undertaken. Methods Eighteen compounds from ZYQL were simultaneously detected and used as chemical markers in the quantitative analysis, including 3-hydroxy-4,5(R)-dimethyl-2(5H)-furanone (M1), isobiflorin (M2), vanillic acid (M3), biflorin (M4), genipin 1-O-β-d-gentiobioside (M5), 1-sinapoyl-β-d-glucopyranoside (M6), geniposide (M7), epijasmnoside A (M8), ferulic acid (M9), luteolin 8-C-β-glucopyranoside (M10), isoorientin (M11), narirutin (M12), hesperidin (M13), 6′-O-sinapoylgeniposide (M14), 3,5-dihydroxy-3′,4′,7,8-tetramethoxyl flavones (M15), 3′,4′,3,5,6,8-hexamethoxyl flavone (M16), kaempferide (M17), and tangeretin (M18). Results The separation by gradient elution was achieved on SHIMADZU VP-ODS column (4.6 × 150 mm, 5 μm) at 30°C with methanol (A)/0.1% phosphoric acid (B) as the mobile phase. The detection wavelengths were 254, 278, and 335 nm. The optimized HPLC method provided a good linear relation (r ≥ 0.9991 for all the target compounds), satisfactory precision (RSD values less than 1.47%) and good recovery (97.40% to 103.44%). The limits of detection ranged between 0.20 × 10−4 and 64.90 × 10−4 μg/μL for the different analytes. Furthermore, the optimum sample preparation was obtained from HPD100 column eluted with water and 95% ethanol, respectively. Conclusions Quality control of ZYQL products, in total seven samples and twelve parent plants, was examined by this method, and results confirmed its feasibility and reliability in practice.

A new flavanol, named songarin A (1), was isolated from Cynomorium songaricum Rupr. The structure was established on the basis of spectroscopic methods including 2D NMR techniques. Compound 1 displayed the protective effect against d-galactosamine-induced HepG2 damage and reduced the damage from 58.64% to 22.26%.

Background Zhuyeqing Liquor (ZYQL), a well-known Chinese traditional health liquor, has various biological properties, including anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, immunoenhancement and cardiovascular protective effects. Methods The protective effects of Zhuyeqing Liquor (ZYQL) on the immune function was investigated in vivo in normal healthy mice and immunosuppressed mice treated with Cyclophosphamide (Cy, 100 mg/kg) by intraperitoneal injection on days 4, 8 and 12. ZYQL (100, 200 and 400 mg/kg) was administered via gavage daily for 14 days. The phagocytotic function of mononuclear phagocytic system was detected with carbon clearance methods, the levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) in serum were detected with Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Immune organs were weighed and organ indexes (organ weight/body weight) of thymus and spleen were calculated. Meanwhile, the activity of lysozyme (LSZ) in serum and the activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), catalase (CAT) in spleen tissue were measured. Results ZYQL significantly upgrades the K value for clearance of carbon particles in normal mice treated with ZYQL (400 mg/kg) and immunosuppressed mice treated with ZYQL (100, 200 and 400 mg/kg) together with Cy (100 mg/kg) in vivo. The treatment of ZYQL (100, 200 and 400 mg/kg) effectively increased the activity of serum lysozyme as well as promoted the serum levels of IL-6 and IFN-γ in normal mice and immunosuppressed mice. Furthermore, ZYQL (100, 200 and 400 mg/kg) had an antioxidant effects in immune system by enhancing the antioxidant enzyme activity of SOD, CAT and GSH-Px in vivo. In addition, ZYQL (100, 200 and 400 mg/kg) effectively elevated the Cy-induced decreased organ index (thymus and spleen). Conclusions The present work shows that the dose-dependent administration of ZYQL is capable of influencing immune responses, which implying that its valuable functional health may be attributed partly to its protective effects for the immune function.

The study first evaluated the hepatoprotective effect of Zhuyeqing Liquor (ZYQL) against acute alcohol-induced liver injury in mice. Animals were administered orally with 50% alcohol 12 ml/kg at 4 h after the doses of ZYQL everyday for fourteen consecutive days except mice in normal group. The protective effect was evaluated by biochemical parameters including serum aspartate transaminase (AST), alanine transferase (ALT), total-bilirubin (TBIL) and reduced glutathione (GSH), malondialdehyde (MDA), superoxide dismutase (SOD) in liver tissue. The result were confirmed histopathologically and the expression of TNF-α in mice liver was determined by immunohistochemistry analysis. HPLC-PDA was used for phytochemical analysis of ZYQL, and the plant source of each compound was claritied by UPLC-TOF-MS. The result showed that pretreatment with ZYQL exhibited a significant protective effect by reversing the biochemical parameters and histopathological changes in a dose depended manner. HPLC analysis indicated that ZYQL contained flavonoids, iridoids, terpenoids and phenolic acids, which might be the active chemicals. This study demonstrated the hepatoprotective activity of ZYQL, thus scientifically supported the function of its health care.

In this study, two types of Danshen from different growth years were discriminated and identified by a three-step infrared spectroscopy method (Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) coupled with second derivative infrared spectroscopy (SD-IR) and two dimensional correlation infrared spectroscopy (2D-IR)). Though only small differences were found in the FT-IR spectra of the samples, the positions and intensities of peaks at around 1635 and 1055 cm−1 could be considered as the key factors to discriminate them. More significant differences were exhibited in their SD-IR spectra, particularly the significant absorption bands attributed to polysaccharides and phenolic acids. The visual 2D-IR spectra provided dynamic chemical structure information of Danshen samples, which present different particular auto peak clusters in the range of 1000–1160 cm−1 and 1430–1700 cm−1, respectively. Furthermore, twenty different samples including ten of each herb were also successfully classified by soft independent modeling of class analogy (SIMCA). This study offers a promising method inherent with cost and time savings to characterize and control the quality of extremely similar and complicated herbal medicines like Danshen.