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New dammarane-type triterpenoid saponin, named 22(R)-notoginsenoside Ab1 (1), together with thirteen known dammarane-type triterpenoid saponins (2-14) was isolated from the EtOH extract of black ginseng and their structures were elucidated on the basis of one- and two-dimensional NMR (including 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR, HSQC, HMBC, ROESY) and calculated ECD. Among them, compounds 1-2 and 6-8 were isolated for the first time from ginseng and black ginseng. Besides, the absolute structure of 22(R)- and 22(S)- notoginsenoside Ab1 were distinguished by ECD for the first time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To elucidate the medicinal nature of black ginseng (BG) by comparison of the effects of four Chinese herbs with different medicinal natures on the deficiency-heat syndrome rat model which was established by intragastric administration of traditional Chinese drugs with hot nature, the appearance indexes, biochemical indexes, and pathological sections of thyroid and stomach were examined. In addition, the seven short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) in rat feces were also determined by headspace gas chromatography-mass spectrometry to reveal the action mechanism of the drugs with different natures. Results indicated that all the 4 drugs could exhibit similar actions in regulating the biochemical indexes of triiodothyronine (T3), thyroxine (T4), thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH), thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), and corticosterone (CORT) representing the hypothalamus-pituitary-thyroid (HPT) and hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axes of the animal. However, cold-natured cortex phellodendri (HB) and ginseng leaves (GLs) showed stronger downregulation of the AChE activity of the nervous system. Red ginseng (RG) and BG tested exhibited stronger upregulation of the liver Na+-K+-ATPase activity. Principal component analysis (PCA) showed that GLs are similar to those of HB which belongs to the cold-nature drug, whereas BG showed closer to RG which attributes to a warm-nature drug. Thus, BG could be ascribed to a warm-nature drug. Further research disclosed that RG and BG mainly regulated the acetic acid and GL and HB primarily modulated the isovaleric acid and hexanoic acid in rat feces, which could be the features of drugs with warm or cold nature on the regulation of SCFAs in rats. It is for the first time that the medicinal nature of BG and its effect on the SCFAs were examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Pair medicine is a unique feature of Chinese medicine. It refers to a specific composition of the two drugs usually used in the formulation of composite medicine, which could increase synergistically or decrease the side effects of one medication. Atractylodis macrocephalae Rhizoma (AMR), a generally used drug, possessed the spleen-tonifying action always used with Rhubarb as a pair medicine to decrease the side effect of Rhubarb. Aim: To investigate the effect of Atractylodis macrocephalae Rhizoma (AMR) and its effective constituents to alleviate the Rhubarb's side effect in their pair medicine. Materials and Methods: The mice were administered Rhubarb until the induction of diarrhea followed by gastrointestinal injury. The gastrointestinal injured mice were treated with AMR's water decoction and its subfractions for 5 consecutive days. The decoction and subfraction were chemically characterized using the High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with a diode-array detector (DAD) analysis. Results: The results showed that AMR's water decoction (6 g/kg) was discovered to be the most effective dose to treat gastrointestinal injury induced by Rhubarb. Body weight, thymus and spleen indexes, the intestinal propulsion rate, and D-xylose absorption in mice with diarrhea and intestinal injury were analyzed to reveal the significant difference between the tested and control groups (P < 0.01). The Water Eluated Fraction (WEF), Petroleum Ether Fraction (PEF), and Crude Polysaccharide Fraction (CPF) could not only increase the levels of amylase, gastrin, and vasoactive intestinal peptide significantly but also ease diarrhea and intestinal injury situation compared with the control group (P < 0.01). Conclusion: AMR and its subfractions effectively ameliorate gastrointestinal side effects of Rhubarb and its components. WEF mainly contained 5-hydroxymethyl furfural and small molecular sugar. PEF mainly composed of sesquiterpene lactone-atractylenolides, while CPF mainly composed of inulin-type oligosaccharides elucidated by HPLC analysis, was the most effective subfraction to alleviate diarrhoea and gastrointestinal injury induced by Rhubarb. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two new triterpenoid saponins (1, 2) and a known saponin (3) were isolated from the husks of Xanthoceras sorbifolia Bunge., and their structures were elucidated as 3-O-β-d-glucopyranosyl(1 → 6)-[angeloyl(1 → 2)]-β-d-glucopyranosyl-28-O-α-l-rhamnopyranosyl(1 → 2)-[β-d-glucopyranosyl(1 → 6)]-β-d-glucopyranosyl-21β,22α-dihydroxyl-olean-12-ene (1), 3-O-β-d-glucopyranosyl-28-O-[β-d-glucopyranosyl(1 → 2)]-β-d-glucopyranosyl-21β,22α-dihydroxyl-olean-12-ene (2), and 3-O-β-d-glucopyranosyl-28-O-[α-l-rhamnopyranosyl(1 → 2)]-β-d-glucopyranosyl-21β,22α-dihydroxyl-olean-12-ene (3), on the basis of the spectral analysis of NMR and chemical methods. Cytotoxic assay indicated that none of them showed obvious inhibitory effect on the proliferation of two human tumor cell lines. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Cordyceps militaris (L.) Link is an entomopathogenic fungus parasitic to Lepidoptera larvae, and is widely used as a folk tonic or invigorant for longevity in China. Although C. militaris has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for millennia, there is still a lack convincing evidence for its anti-aging activities. This study was performed to investigate the effects of polysaccharides from cultivated fruiting bodies of C. militaris (CMP) on mitochondrial injury, antioxidation and anti-aging activity. Fruiting bodies of C. militaris were cultivated artificially under optimized conditions. The spectrophotometric method was used to measure thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS), mitochondrial swelling, and activities of scavenging superoxide anions in vitro. D-galactose (100 mg/kg/day) was injected subcutaneously into back of the neck of mice for 7 weeks to induce an aging model. The effects of CMP on the activities of catalase (CAT), surperoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and anti-hydroxyl radicals were assayed in vivo using commercial monitoring kits. The results showed that CMP could inhibit mitochondrial injury and swelling induced by Fe2+-L-Cysteine in a concentration- dependent manner and it also had a significant superoxide anion scavenging effect. Moreover, the activities of CAT, SOD, GPx and anti-hydroxyl radicals in mice liver were increased significantly by CMP. These results indicate that CMP protects mitochondria by scavenging reactive oxygen species (ROS), inhibiting mitochondrial swelling, and increasing the activities of antioxidases. Therefore, CMP may have pharmaceutical values for mitochondrial protection and anti-aging. CMP was the major bioactive component in C. militaris. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]