Patchouli alcohol against renal fibrosis of spontaneously hypertensive rats via Ras/Raf-1/ERK1/2 signalling pathway.

Objectives: The present study was designed to obverse the protection of patchouli alcohol (PA) ameliorates hypertensive nephropathy in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) and reveals potential mechanism.

Methods: Briefly, the adult spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) or Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rats (half male and half female) were intragastric gavaged or not with PA (80, 40 and 20 mg/kg) for 8 weeks. Body weight, blood pressure (BP), renal weight, renal function and renal morphology were measured.

Erianin inhibits human cervical cancer cell through regulation of tumor protein p53 via the extracellular signal-regulated kinase signaling pathway.

Erianin, a natural bibenzyl compound, is present in Lindl. (commonly known as Shihu in China), which is used as an antipyretic and analgesic in traditional Chinese medicine, and has been reported to exert inhibitory effects on cancer cells . Cervical cancer is the third-most common cancer in women worldwide, and has the highest morbidity rate of gynecological malignancies.

Patchouli alcohol isolated from Pogostemon cablin mediates endothelium-independent vasorelaxation by blockade of Ca channels in rat isolated thoracic aorta.

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: The aerial parts of Pogostemon cablin (Blanco) Benth. for the treatment of cardiodynia have been documented in Mingyi Bielu of late Han Dynasty, in addition to that the Ca antagonized activities of P. cablin and its critically pharmacological ingredient patchouli alcohol (PA) were reported previously.

Danggui Buxue decoction promotes angiogenesis by up-regulation of VEGFR expressions and down-regulation of sVEGFR expression in myocardial infarction rat.

Background: The traditional herbal compound Danggui Buxue decoction (DBD), has long been used for the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases, however, the underlying molecular mechanism for its effect remains still unknown. So this study would to investigate the effect of DBD on cardiac damage induced by myocardial infarction (MI) challenge.

Methods: SD Rats with ligation of left anterior descending (LAD) coronary artery were randomly divided into MI, MI plus Betaloc Zok, MI plus DBD high dose, and MI plus DBD low dose group, together with sham-operated group.

Availability, Pharmaceutics, Security, Pharmacokinetics, and Pharmacological Activities of Patchouli Alcohol.

Patchouli alcohol (PA), a tricyclic sesquiterpene, is one of the critical bioactive ingredients and is mainly isolated from aerial part of (known as guanghuoxiang in China) belonging to Labiatae. So far, PA has been widely applied in perfume industries. This review was written with the use of reliable information published between 1974 and 2016 from libraries and electronic researches including NCKI, PubMed, Reaxys, ACS, ScienceDirect, Springer, and Wiley-Blackwell, aiming at presenting comprehensive outline of security, pharmacokinetics, and bioactivities of PA and at further providing a potential guide in exploring the PA and its use in various medical fields.

Association of rat thoracic aorta dilatation by astragaloside IV with the generation of endothelium-derived hyperpolarizing factors and nitric oxide, and the blockade of Ca channels.

The aim of the present study was to elucidate the roles of endothelium-derived hyperpolarizing factors (EDHFs) and nitric oxide (NO) in mediating the vasodilatation response to astragaloside IV and the effects of astragaloside IV on voltage-dependent Ca channels and receptor-operated Ca channels in rat thoracic aortic rings precontracted with potassium chloride (KCl; 60 mM) or phenylephrine (PHE; 1 µM). The results showed that astragaloside IV (1×10-3×10 g/l) concentration-dependently relaxed the contraction induced by KCl (10-90 mM) or PHE (1×10-3×10 µM) and inhibited concentration-contraction curves for the two vasoconstrictors in the aortic rings. Preincubation with N-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME, 100 µM) significantly attenuated astragaloside IV-induced relaxation in the endothelium-intact and -denuded arterial rings precontracted with PHE.

Leonuketal, a Spiroketal Diterpenoid from Leonurus japonicus.

An architecturally complex spiroketal diterpenoid, leonuketal (1), was isolated from the aerial parts of the plant Leonurus japonicus. This compound possessed an unprecedented tetracyclic skeleton that comprised a bridged spiroketal moiety fused with a ketal-γ-lactone unit. The structure and absolute configuration were determined by spectroscopic analyses, a modified Mosher's method, and ECD (electronic circular dichroism) calculations.

Research on choleretic effect of menthol, menthone, pluegone, isomenthone, and limonene in DanShu capsule.

Danshu capsule (DSC) is a medicinal compound in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). It is commonly used for the treatment of acute & chronic cholecystitis as well as choleithiasis. To study its choleretic effect, healthy rats were randomly divided into DSC high (DSCH, 900mg/kg), medium (DSCM, 450mg/kg), and low (DSCL, 225mg/kg) group, Xiaoyan Lidan tablet (XYLDT, 750mg/kg), and saline group.