The catalogue of the Westhoff collection of Chinese materia medica (c. 1870): Evidence of interaction between a Chinese medicine practitioner and the Dutch in Indonesia.

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: The Westhoff collection of Chinese materia medica (c. 1870) at the Utrecht University Museum in Utrecht, the Netherlands, contains an original, handwritten catalogue, which was putatively ascribed to a Chinese medicine practitioner. It provides a detailed record of the Chinese names, plant parts, preparations, and applications of the specimens contained in glass bottles, which probably reflects the physician's personal interpretation of Chinese medicine in Indonesia at the end of the 19th century.

Opportunities and hurdles to European market access for multi-herbal traditional Chinese medicine products: An analysis of EU regulations for combination herbal medicinal products.

TCM herbal remedies are popular among European patients. However, a very limited number of TCM products have been approved as herbal medicinal products (HMPs) in Europe. Multi-herbal TCM products, the most prevalent form of medication in TCM practice, are even rare.

Defect in Ser312 phosphorylation of Tp53 dysregulates lipid metabolism for fatty accumulation and fatty liver susceptibility: Revealed by lipidomics.

The Tp53 gene is a well-known tumour suppressor, mutation of which (e.g. prevention of Ser312 phosphorylation) induces deletion or expression of an inactive p53 protein to increase the susceptibility of tumour occurance.

Discovery and therapeutic implications of bioactive dihydroxylated phenolic acids in patients with severe heart disease and conditions associated with inflammation and hypoxia.

Our initial studies detected elevated levels of 3,4-dihydroxyphenyllactic acid (DHPLA) in urine samples of patients with severe heart disease when compared with healthy subjects. Given the reported anti-inflammatory properties of DHPLA and related dihydroxylated phenolic acids (DPAs), we embarked on an exploratory multi-centre investigation in patients with no urinary tract infections to establish the possible pathophysiological significance and therapeutic implications of these findings. Chinese and Caucasian patients being treated for severe heart disease or those conditions associated with inflammation (WBC ≥ 10 ×10/L or hsCRP ≥ 3.

Urinary metabolomic profiling reveals difference between two traditional Chinese medicine subtypes of coronary heart disease.

The World Health Organization has shown that coronary heart disease (CHD) is a more common cause of death than cancer. In traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), CHD is classified as a form of thoracic obstruction that can be divided in different subtypes including Qi stagnation with blood stasis (QS) and Qi deficiency with blood stasis (QD). Different treatment strategies are used based on this subtyping.

Analysis of historical changes in traditional Chinese medicine based on an Indonesian collection of Chinese materia medica from c. 1870.

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: Traditional Chinese Medicine is subject to changes over time: product names, botanical ingredients, processing methods and uses have varied throughout the course of history. Historic collections of Chinese materia medica (CMM) are of great value for research on the evolvement, development and variability of Chinese herbal medicine over time. These changes may have a significant influence on the safety and efficiency of nowadays' clinical practice.

An investigation of the pharmacological applications used for the Ancient Egyptian systemic model 'ra-ib' compared with modern Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: Ancient Egyptian texts only offer glimpses into their conceptual understandings of the inner-body and illness manifestation. Explanations of how prescribed materia medica were believed to work are rare and obscure, often resulting in modern approximations for ancient terminology such as 'ra-ib'-an ancient Egyptian classification predominantly translated as 'stomach'-leading to misunderstandings of historical texts, and therefore their use of pharmacology.

Aim Of The Study: To investigate the ra-ib and the explanatory models of illness from the Egyptian perspective, and to explore the link between these and the prescribed selection of materia medica.