Bioactive metabolites reveal the therapeutic consistency of epimedii folium from multi-plant sources for the treatment of kidney-yang deficiency.

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: Epimedii Folium (Yin-yang-huo in Chinese), a traditional and commonly used herbal medicine (HM), is a representative of multi-plant sources. To date, little is known about the reasons for similar therapeutic effects of this HM from multi-plant sources.

Aim Of The Study: To investigate the underlying reasons for the similar pharmacological effects of Epimedii Folium from two botanical sources (Epimedium koreanum Nakai and Epimedium wushanense T.

Lycium barbarum mitigates radiation injury via regulation of the immune function, gut microbiota, and related metabolites.

Previous studies have suggested that Lycium barbarum (L. barbarum) has a radioprotective function, although more in-depth investigation is still required. We investigated the radioprotective efficacy of extract of the fruits of L.

Behavioral sensitization induced by methamphetamine causes differential alterations in gene expression and histone acetylation of the prefrontal cortex in rats.

Background: Methamphetamine (METH) is one of the most widely abused illicit substances worldwide; unfortunately, its addiction mechanism remains unclear. Based on accumulating evidence, changes in gene expression and chromatin modifications might be related to the persistent effects of METH on the brain. In the present study, we took advantage of METH-induced behavioral sensitization as an animal model that reflects some aspects of drug addiction and examined the changes in gene expression and histone acetylation in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) of adult rats.

Anemarrhena asphodeloides modulates gut microbiota and restores pancreatic function in diabetic rats.

Anemarrhena asphodeloides is an herb widely used to treat symptoms associated with diabetes in traditional Chinese medicine. However, its key components and metabolites have low bioavailability and poor host absorption. To clarify the anti-diabetic mechanism of A.

Liupao tea extract alleviates diabetes mellitus and modulates gut microbiota in rats induced by streptozotocin and high-fat, high-sugar diet.

Liupao tea, a popular dark tea, exhibited anti-diabetic activity in Chinese tea culture. However, the bioavailability of the main active components is low. Therefore, the relationship between the anti-diabetic activity and the modulation of gut microbiota was investigated in this study for the first time.

The qualitative and quantitative analyses of Gelsemium elegans.

Gelsemium elegans is a traditional Chinese medicine that has been used to treat eczema, bruises, rheumatoid arthritis and skin ulcers for many years, and alkaloids are its major active and toxic constituents. This study aimed to comprehensively assess the quality of G. elegans samples including different plant parts and origins using ultra high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with photo-diode array and quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC-PDA-QTOF/MS) and high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with UV detector (HPLC-UV).

Comparison of hypoglycemic effects of ripened pu-erh tea and raw pu-erh tea in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats.

Pu-erh tea is produced from the leaves of large-leaf tea species ( var. assamica) in the Yunnan province of China and divided into ripened pu-erh tea (RIPT, with pile-fermentation) and raw pu-erh tea (RAPT) according to processing methods. RIPT extract showed more potent anti-diabetic effects on two-hour postprandial blood glucose (2h-PBG) and fasting blood glucose (FBG) than RAPT extract.

The reason leading to the increase of icariin in Herba Epimedii by heating process.

Icariin (ICA), a major flavonoid responsible for the pharmacological actions of Herba Epimedii, was found to be increased significantly after the heating process. The increase of ICA was considered to be due to the transformation of other flavonoids, in particular, epimedin (EPI) A-C. This novel study demonstrated that the increase of ICA in Epimedium.

Comparative studies of three cholesteryl ester transfer proteins and their interactions with known inhibitors.

Cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) is a plasma protein that mediates bidirectional transfers of cholesteryl esters and triglycerides between low-density lipoproteins and high-density lipoproteins (HDL). Because low levels of plasma CETP are associated with increased plasma HDL-cholesterol, therapeutic inhibition of CETP activity is considered an attractive strategy for elevating plasma HDL-cholesterol, thereby hoping to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. Interestingly, only a few laboratory animals, such as rabbits, guinea pigs, and hamsters, have plasma CETP activity, whereas mice and rats do not.

Three New Sesquiterpene Glycosides from the Rhizomes of Trillium tschonoskii.

Three new sesquiterpene glycosides, possessing a rare aglycone with a sulfonyl between C-1 and C-15 positions, named 3-(3'-7',8'-dihydroxy-4',8'-dimethyl-3'-nonenyl)-2,5-dihydro-1,1-dioxo-thiophen 7'--β-d-glucopyranosyl-(1→4)--β-d-glucopyranosyl-(1→4)--β-d-glucopyranoside (), 3-(3'-7',8'-dihydroxy-4',8'-dimethyl-3'-nonenyl)-2,5-dihydro-1,1-dioxo-thiophen 7'--β-d-glucopyranosyl-(1→4)--β-d-glucopyranoside (), and 3-(3'-7',8'-dihydroxy-4',8'-dimethyl-3'-nonenyl)-2,5-dihydro-1,1-dioxo-thiophen 7'--β-d-glucopyranosyl-6'--acetyl-(1→4)--β-d-glucopyranosyl-(1→4)--β-d-glucopyranoside (), respectively, were isolated from the rhizomes of . Their structures were established on the basis of spectroscopic data, including HR-ESI-MS, IR, 1D and 2D NMR. The cytotoxic properties of the three compounds were investigated using human hepatic L02 cells.

LBVS: an online platform for ligand-based virtual screening using publicly accessible databases.

Abundant data on compound bioactivity and publicly accessible chemical databases increase opportunities for ligand-based drug discovery. In order to make full use of the data, an online platform for ligand-based virtual screening (LBVS) using publicly accessible databases has been developed. LBVS adopts Bayesian learning approach to create virtual screening models because of its noise tolerance, speed, and efficiency in extracting knowledge from data.