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Ginseng(Panax ginsengC. A. Mey.) is a traditional medicinal herb in Asia. Studies have shown that gin-senosides significantly affect immunoregulation and rare ginsenosides have anti-allergic effects. In this research, a high temperature and high pressure method was utilized to increase the contents of rare ginsenosides in the ginseng extract(GE). The anti-allergic effects of this extract were investigated in vivo. Water was used as the extraction solvent in extracting the rare ginsenosides viathe high temperature and high pressure method. Extraction time and temperature were investigated in order to increase the contents of rare ginsenosides. Rare ginsenosides were qualitatively analyzed by HPLC-ESI-MS and quantitatively analyzed by HPLC-UV. Anti-allergic effects of the extracts were assessed using the ovalbumin(OVA)-induced allergic asthma model in vivo. An extraction temperature of 145 °C and extraction time of 2.0 h were chosen as the optimal conditions. Compared with traditional method, the contents of total rare ginsenosides extracted were considerably higher using the new method, that is, 14.74 times that extracted by the traditional method. In our in vivoexperiments, treatment with high concentration GE may have anti-allergic effects in decreasing the total amount of IgE in serum and IL-4 in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid(BALF), and in improving the ratio of CD4+to CD8+T cells. The high temperature and high pressure method was an effective method to obtain GE containing more rare ginsenosides, which maybe become anti-allergic agents.

Two new steroidal saponins(2, 3) and two known compounds(1, 4) were isolated from 75% ethanol extract of Allii macrostemonisbulbus by various spectral methods. The two new steroidal saponins were respectively elucidated as (25S)-26-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl-5α-furostanol-2α,3β,22,26-tetrol-3-O0-β-D-glucopyranosyl(1→2)-[β-D-glucopyranosyl(1→3)]-β-D-glucopyranosyl(1→4)-β-D-galactopyranoside(2) and 26-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl-5α-furostanol-25(27)-ene-3β,22,26-tetrol-3-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl(1→2)-[β-D-glucopyranosyl(1→3)]-β-D-glucopyranosyl-(1→4)-β-D-galactopyranoside(3). Compound 4was obtained from this medical plant for the first time. The activity experiments of proliferation inhibition on tumor cells were performed by cell counting kit-8(CCK-8) method for compound 2(25S-configuration) and its isomer(compound 1, 25R-configuration). The results show that compounds 1and 2have weak inhibition on lung cancer A549 cells, melanoma A375 cells and breast cancer MCF-7 cells as well as certain inhibitory effect on liver cancer HepG2 cells, and the inhibitory effect of compound 1 is stronger than that of compound 2.

Two new baccharane-type glycosides (1and 2), together with seven known baccharane-type glycosides (3―9) hosenkoside A, hosenkoside B, hosenkoside C, hosenkoside F, hosenkoside M, hosenkoside K and hosenkoside G were isolated from the dried seeds of Impatientis balsaminaL. The new baccharane-type glycosides were identified as honsenkol A-3-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl-26-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl-28-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl(1) and (3S,4R,17R,20S)-17-hydroxy-3-O-β-D-xylopyranose(12)-β-D-glucopyranosyl-26-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl-28-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl-21,24-epoxybaccharane(2), respectively, by spectroscopic methods, including NMR(1D and 2D), IR and HR-ESI-MS. Compounds 1and 2were evaluated for in vitroinhibitory activity against the cell lines. Compound 2with a new baccharane skeleton had anti-hepatic fibrosis activity against A375 cells in bioassay results, which means the new compounds have potential value in antitumor applications.

Eight polycyclic furanobutenolide-containing norcembrane diterpenoids featuring C19 frameworks (1–8) were rapidly recognized and isolated from the Hainan soft coral Sinulariasp. by the HSQC-based small molecule accurate recognition technology. Yonarolide A (1a), featuring an unprecedented 5/6/4/4/7 pentacyclic ring skeleton, was surprisingly obtained as a transformed product by leaving compound 1under indoor natural light, and was further proved to be a [2 + 2] cycloaddition product of 1by photochemical reaction. The absolute stereochemistry of 1aand the three known norcembrane diterpenoids 1, 4, and 7were determined by using X-ray diffraction (XRD) analyses. Further, with the aid of XRD analysis, the structure of scabrolide B (2), which was previously reported of possessing 5/6/7 tricyclic skeleton, was firmly revised as 2awith the rare inelegane skeleton featured by the highly oxygenated 5/7/6 tricyclic carbocycle.

A new triterpenoid glycoside(1) and seven known triterpenoid glycosides, pseudoginsenoside RT2(2), yesanchinoside R2(3), vinaginsenoside R13(4), vinaginsenoside R8(5), notoginsenoside E(6), 6′′′-O-acetylginsenoside Re(7), 6″-O-acetylginsenoside Rb1(8), were isolated from the rhizomes of Panacis majoris. The new triterpenoid glycoside was elucidated as 3-O-[β-D-glucopyranosyl-(1→2)-β-D-(6′-O-ethyl)-glucuronopyranosyl]-oleanolic acid-28-O-β-D-glucopyranoside by extensive spectroscopic and phytochemical methods. Compounds 2―8were obtained from the plant for the first time. Compounds 3and 4displayed good activities against adenosine diphosphate (ADP)-induced platelet aggregation, and compounds 1, 5, 6and 8showed moderate activities. Compound 6exhibited moderate antiplatelet aggregation activity induced by arachidonic acid(AA).

Rare ginsenosides in Panax quinquefoliusL. have strong bioactivities. The fact that it is hard to obtain large amounts of rare ginsenosides seriously restricts further research on these compounds. An easy, fast, and efficient method to obtain different kinds of rare ginsenosides simultaneously and to quantify each one precisely is urgently needed.

With the oxidation treatment, eighteen compounds were separated from 20(S)-ginsenoside Rg2, Rh1, protopanaxatriol(PPT) and their 20(R)-epimers in total and cytotoxicity of most of them was evaluated against three human cancer cell lines HeLa, A549 and MCF-7 by 3-(4,5-dimetylthiazol-z-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide(MTT) assay. Their structures were confirmed by means of nuclear magnetic resonance(NMR) and mass spectrometry and the results were compared with those of previous literature. In this study, we systematically semisynthesized all four ocotillol type saponins, i.e., (20S, 24S), (20S, 24R), (20R, 24S) and (20R, 24R). All the configurations at C20 kept the same with their starting materials. Meanwhile a pair of C24 epimers was generated in terms of ocotillol type saponins. In addition, seven compounds(4―8, 13and 14) were reported firstly. The cytotoxic results distinguished the ocotillol type products(6, 7, 13and 14) from 20(R)-PPT and 20(R)-ginsenoside Rh1, which possessed better cytotoxicities than their correspondents from 20(S)-epimers against HeLa cells, and the carbonyl group at C3 can improve the cytotoxicity, which helped us to gain deeper insight into Ocotillol type saponins.

A green and effective extraction system based on the use of an ultrasound-assisted ionic liquid aqueous two-phase system (IL-ATPS) was developed for the determination of aconitum alkaloids in lateral roots of Aconitum carmichaeliDebx (Fuzi in Chinese). IL-ATPS parameters, including the type and amount of ionic liquid, amount of salts, and pH value, as well as extraction time, were investigated. Under the optimized conditions, the recoveries of the analytes varied from 80.37 to 107.18%. The detection limits and quantification limits for the analytes were achieved within the ranges of 0.048–0.082 μg g−1and 0.16–0.30 μg g−1, respectively. After extraction, the recovery of ionic liquids without the use of organic solvents was also confirmed. The hydrophilic ionic liquids (1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium bromide) were converted into hydrophobic ionic liquids (1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate) by a metathesis reaction, and in situliquid–liquid microextraction was triggered simultaneously. Finally, 0.1 mol L−1HCl aqueous solution (containing 5% Tween-20) was used as the back-extraction agent to recover the ionic liquids.

Background: Inorganic nanocomposites especially Au nanostructures have exhibited outstanding physicochemical properties in biomedical fields. For further clinical applications on theranostics, especially drug delivery, numerous explorations of green and facile synthesis methods combining with pharmacoactive natural components have been investigated to construct safe and multifunctional bioactive Au nanoparticles (NPs). Ginsenoside Rh2is protopanaxadiol type compound isolated from plants of genus Panax, with excellent anticancer effect and antioxidant activity. In this research, we prepared the novel Au nanoparticles using ginsenoside Rh2as both reducing and stabilizing agents. Results: The synthesized Au@ginsenoside Rh2NPs were proved to exhibit desirable inhibitory effect on different cancer cell lines, which benefited from the inherent anticancer effect of the ginsenoside Rh2. Investigations in vitro indicated that Au@ginsenoside Rh2NPs inhibited cell proliferation, cell migration and invasion, induced cell cycle arrest, enhanced the reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, and regulated the protein expressions of caspase-3, 8, 9 to trigger cell apoptosis as well. Conclusions: Because of the absence of toxic chemical surfactants, the eco-friendly synthesis method of Au NPs modified by natural phytochemicals avoided tedious separation and modification processes. On the other hand, Au@ginsenoside Rh2NPs also improved water solubility and bioavailability of the hydrophobic drug ginsenoside Rh2. It broadened minds for preparation and application of traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs) modified metal nanoparticles and deserved further study.

DNA methylation plays vital roles in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes. There are three forms of DNA methylation in prokaryotes: N6-methyladenine (6mA), N4-methylcytosine (4mC), and 5-methylcytosine (5mC). Although many sequencing methods have been developed to sequence specific types of methylation, few technologies can be used for efficiently mapping multiple types of methylation. Here, we present NT-seq for mapping all three types of methylation simultaneously. NT-seq reliably detects all known methylation motifs in two bacterial genomes and can be used for identifying de novo methylation motifs. NT-seq provides a simple and efficient solution for detecting multiple types of DNA methylation.