Selection for high oridonin yield in the Chinese medicinal plant Isodon (Lamiaceae) using a combined phylogenetics and population genetics approach.

Oridonin is a diterpenoid with anti-cancer activity that occurs in the Chinese medicinal plant Isodon rubescens and some related species. While the bioactivity of oridonin has been well studied, the extent of natural variation in the production of this compound is poorly known. This study characterizes natural variation in oridonin production in order to guide selection of populations of Isodon with highest oridonin yield.

Development of microsatellite markers for the medicinal plant Isodon rubescens (Lamiaceae) and related species.

Premise Of The Study: Microsatellite markers were developed for the medicinal plant Isodon rubescens to investigate genetic variability of the species and, in future studies, to assess its relation to the content of pharmacologically active chemicals produced by the plant.

Methods And Results: Eleven primer pairs were identified and tested in multiple populations of I. rubescens and related species (I.

Heavy metal and pesticide content in commonly prescribed individual raw Chinese Herbal Medicines.

Heavy metal and pesticide contamination has previously been reported in Chinese Herbal Medicines (CHMs), in some cases at potentially toxic levels. This study was conducted to determine general patterns and toxicological significance of heavy metal and pesticide contamination in a broad sample of raw CHMs. Three-hundred-thirty-four samples representing 126 species of CHMs were collected throughout China and examined for arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead, and mercury.

Traditional Medicine Collection Tracking System (TM-CTS): a database for ethnobotanically driven drug-discovery programs.

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: Ethnobotanically driven drug-discovery programs include data related to many aspects of the preparation of botanical medicines, from initial plant collection to chemical extraction and fractionation. The Traditional Medicine Collection Tracking System (TM-CTS) was created to organize and store data of this type for an international collaborative project involving the systematic evaluation of commonly used Traditional Chinese Medicinal plants.

Materials And Methods: The system was developed using domain-driven design techniques, and is implemented using Java, Hibernate, PostgreSQL, Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools (BIRT), and Apache Tomcat.

Developing a library of authenticated Traditional Chinese Medicinal (TCM) plants for systematic biological evaluation--rationale, methods and preliminary results from a Sino-American collaboration.

While the popularity of and expenditures for herbal therapies (aka "ethnomedicines") have increased globally in recent years, their efficacy, safety, mechanisms of action, potential as novel therapeutic agents, cost-effectiveness, or lack thereof, remain poorly defined and controversial. Moreover, published clinical trials evaluating the efficacy of herbal therapies have rightfully been criticized, post hoc, for their lack of quality assurance and reproducibility of study materials, as well as a lack of demonstration of plausible mechanisms and dosing effects. In short, clinical botanical investigations have suffered from the lack of a cohesive research strategy which draws on the expertise of all relevant specialties.