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It has been demonstrated that 5-HT(1A) receptors play an important role in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. Because Gastrodia elata Bl (GE) modulates the serotonergic system, we examined whether GE could affect phencyclidine (PCP)-induced abnormal behavior in mice. Repeated treatment with PCP increased immobility time, while it decreased social interaction time and recognition memory. PCP-induced abnormal behaviors were significantly attenuated by GE, and these effects were comparable to those of 8-OH-DPAT, a 5-HT(1A) receptor agonist. Furthermore, GE-mediated effects were counteracted by WAY 100635, a 5-HT(1A) receptor antagonist. Our results suggest that the antipsychotic effects of GE are, at least in part, mediated via activation of 5-HT(1A) in mice.

Resume In this paper, we discuss the errors in selectivity estimation using the multilevel grid file (MLGF), a multidimensional file structure. We first demonstrate that estimation errors stem from the uniformity assumption that records are uniformly distributed in their belonging region represented by an entry in a level of an MLGF directory. Based on this demonstration, we then investigate five factors affecting the accuracy of estimation: (1) the data distribution in a region, (2) the number of records stored in an MLGF, (3) the page size, (4) the query region size, and (5) the level of an MLGF directory. Next, we present the tendency of estimation errors according to the change of values for each factor through extensive experiments. The results show that the errors decrease when: (1) the distribution of records in a region becomes closer to the uniform one; (2) the number of records in an MLGF increases; (3) the page size decreases; (4) the query region size increases; and (5) the level of an MLGF directory employed as data distribution information becomes lower. After defining the Granule Ratio , the core formula representing the basic relationship between the estimation errors and the above factors, we finally examine the change of estimation errors according to the change of the values for the Granule Ratio through experiments. The results indicate that errors tend to be similar depending on the values for the Granule Ratio regardless of the various changes of the values for the factors.

For quality evaluation of herbal medicines, we studied content standard of herbal medicines. Each herbal medicine has different by origin and growing district and so on. We set up the contents standard of marker substance in each herbal medicine by simultaneous analysis using HPLC-DAD. Each effective marker substance was selected by identification of efficacy study. We analyzed for eight herbal medicines (Glycyrrizae radix, Scutellariae radix, Schisandrae fructus, Evodiae fructus, Epimedii herba, Sophorae radix, Angelicae gigantis radix, Paeoniae radix). Each analysis method for herbal medicines was certified by validation study. The suggested content standards through the result of analysis were as followed; Glycyrrizae radix (not less than glycyrrhizin 2.5%, liquiritin 1.0%), Scutellariae radix (not less than the sum of baicalin, baicalein and wogonin 10.0%), Schisandrae fructus (not less than sum of schizandrin, gomisin A and gomisin N 0.7%), Evodiae fructus (not less than the sum of evodiamine and rutaecarpine 0.1%), Epimedii herba (not less than Icariin 0.3%), Sophorae radix (not less than the sum of matrine and oxymatrine 1.0%), Angelicae gigantis radix [not less than the sum of total decursin(decursin and decursinol angelate) and nodakenin 6.0%], Paeoniae radix (not less than the sum of paeoniflorin and albiflorin 2.3%). The research was used to set up the contents standards of herbal medicines in Korean Pharmacopoeia 9th(’07.12.). We anticipate that this application will prevent the import of poor materials, thus leading to enhanced credibility of herbal medicines.