Screening and analysis of biologically active compounds in Angelica sinensis by molecular biochromatography

A novel strategy for the screening and analysis of biologically active compounds in traditional Chinese medicine by molecular biochromatography is proposed. Molecular biochromatography with human serum albumin (HSA) immobilized on silica as stationary phase was used to screen and analyse the bioactive compounds in the typical Chinese medicine of Angelica sinensis (Oliv.) Diels. Ten peaks showed retention on this column, which is based on their affinity for HSA. Ferulic acid and liguistilide were identified as the principal active components, which agrees very well with the results in the literature. A quality control method was also developed based on the simultaneous determination the concentrations of ferulic acid and liguistilide in solutions of Angelica sinensis (Oliv.) Diels extracted with water and methanol. It was observed that the concentrations of ferulic acid and liguistilide in solution extracted with methanol were 2 and 53 times higher, respectively, than those with water. It was shown that molecular biochromatography is an effective way of analysing and screening biologically active compounds in traditional Chinese medicine.

Separation of compounds interacting with liposome membrane in combined prescription of traditional Chinese medicines with immobilized liposome chromatography

Immobilized liposome chromatography (ILC), the stationary phase of which has been regarded as a mimic biomembranes system was used to separate and analyze compounds interacting with liposome membrane in Danggui Buxue decoction, a combined prescription of traditional Chinese medicines (CPTCMs), and its compositions Radix Astragli and Radix Angelica Sinensis. More than 10 main peaks in the extract of Danggui Buxue decoction were resolved on the ILC column, suggesting that more than 10 components in the prescription have significant retention on ILC column. Ligustilide, astragaloside, TV and formononetin, three main bioactive ingredients in Danggui Buxue decoction, were found to have relatively significant, while ferulic acid, another bioactive ingredient in the prescription, relatively weak retention on ILC column. Effects of the eluent pH and amount of immobilized phosphatidylcholine (PC) on separation of interactional compounds in the extract of Danggui Buxue decoction were also investigated. It was found that these two factors strongly affected the retention of some interactional compounds. In addition, the fractions partitioned with different solvents from water extract of this combined prescription were evaluated with this ILC column system. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Improved performance of comprehensive two-dimensional HPLC separation of traditional Chinese medicines by using a silica monolithic column and normalization of peak heights

Performance of comprehensive two-dimensional liquid chromatography system is greatly improved than we reported previously by using a silica monolithic column as for the second dimensional separation. Due to the increase of the elution speed on the second dimensional monolithic column, the first dimensional column efficiency and analysis rate can be greatly improved as comparing with conventionally second dimensional column. The developed system was applied to analysis of methanol extraction of two umbelliferae herbs Ligusticum chuanxiong Hort. and Angelica sinensis (Oliv.) Diels by using CN column as for the first dimensional separation and a silica monolithic ODS column for the second dimensional separation, and the obtained three-dimensional chromatograms were treated by normalization of peak heights with the value of the highest peak or setting a certain value using a software written in-house. It was observed that much more peaks for low-abundant components in TCM extract can clearly be detected here than we reported before, due to the large difference for the amount of components in TCMs' extract. With the above improvements in separation performance and data treatment, totally about 120 components in methanol extraction of Rhizoma chuanxiong and 100 in A. sinensis were separated with UV detection within 130 min. This result meant that both the number of peaks detected increase twice but the analysis time decease twice if comparing with the previously reported result. (c) 2005 Published by Elsevier B.V.

Occurence of Chai Hu (Bupleuri Radix) in Prescriptions of Chinese Herbal Medicine in Switzerland

Background: Chai hu (Bupleuri radix), one of the most frequently used herbs in Chinese herbal medicine, has 3 major functions, depending on dosage and combination with other herbs. The aim of this study was to investigate how chai hu is prescribed in everyday practice in Switzerland, and whether these prescription patterns reflect its various applications. Methods: A random sample of 1,053 prescriptions was drawn from the database of Lian Chinaherb AG, Wollerau, Switzerland, and analyzed regarding the most frequently used classical formulas containing chai hu, daily dosages and combinations with other herbs. Results: 29.0% of all prescriptions contained chai hu, and 98.0% of these were in granular form. The most frequently used classical formulas were xiao yao san (‘rambling powder’), jia wei xiao yao san (‘augmented rambling powder’) and chai hu shu gan san (‘Bupleurum powder to spread the liver’). In more than half of the prescriptions, chai hu was combined with bai shao (Paeoniae Radix Alba), dang gui (Angelicae sinensis radix) or fu ling (Poria). 51.8% of the prescriptions contained a low daily dosage of chai hu, 24.9% a medium and 15.1% a high dosage. Conclusion: Chai hu was generally prescribed in classic combinations with other herbs and in a medium dosage. Due to the addition of supplementary herbs to classical formulas, its daily dose was often diminished from a high or medium dose to a low dose. This raises the question if chai hu would then still exert its desired function of, e.g., moving liver-qi in these prescriptions

Angelica archengelica extract induced perturbation of rat skin and tight junctional protein (ZO-1) of HaCaT cells

Background and purpose of the study: Herbal enhancers compared to the synthetic ones have shown less toxis effects. Coumarins have been shown at concentrations inhibiting phospoliphase C-Y (Phc-Y) are able to enhance tight junction (TJ) permeability due to hyperpoalation of Zonolous Occludense-1 (ZO-1) proteins. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the influence of ethanolic extract of Angelica archengelica (AA-E) which contain coumarin on permeation of repaglinide across rat epidermis and on the tight junction plaque protein ZO-1 in HaCaT cells. Methods: Transepidermal water loss (TEWL) from the rat skin treated with different concentrations of AA-E was assessed by Tewameter. Scanning and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) on were performed on AA-E treated rat skin portions. The possibility of AA-E influence on the architecture of tight junctions by adverse effect on the cytoplasmic ZO-1 in HaCaT cells was investigated. Finally, the systemic delivery of repaglinide from the optimized transdermal formulation was investigated in rats. Results: The permeation of repaglinide across excised rat epidermis was 7-fold higher in the presence of AA-E (5% w/v) as compared to propylene glycol:ethanol (7:3) mixture. The extract was found to perturb the lipid microconstituents in both excised and viable rat skin, although, the effect was less intense in the later. The enhanced permeation of repaglinide across rat epidermis excised after treatment with AA-E (5% w/v) for different periods was in concordance with the high TEWL values of similarly treated viable rat skin. Further, the observed increase in intercellular space, disordering of lipid structure and corneocyte detachment indicated considerable effect on the ultrastructure of rat epidermis. Treatment of HaCaT cell line with AA-E (0.16% w/v) for 6 hrs influenced ZO-1 as evidenced by reduced immunofluorescence of anti-TJP1 (ZO-1) antibody in Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy studies (CLSM) studies. The plasma concentration of repaglinide from transdermal formulation was maintained higher and for longer time as compared to oral administration of repaglinide. Major conclusion: Results suggest the overwhelming influence of Angelica archengelica in enhancing the percutaneous permeation of repaglinide to be mediated through perturbation of skin lipids and tight junction protein (ZO-1).

High Throughput, Low Latency, Memory Optimized 64K Point FFT Architecture using Novel Radix-4 Butterfly Unit

In this paper we propose a fully parallel 64K point radix-4(4) FFT processor. The radix-4(4) parallel unrolled architecture uses a novel radix-4 butterfly unit which takes all four inputs in parallel and can selectively produce one out of the four outputs. The radix-4(4) block can take all 256 inputs in parallel and can use the select control signals to generate one out of the 256 outputs. The resultant 64K point FFT processor shows significant reduction in intermediate memory but with increased hardware complexity. Compared to the state-of-art implementation 5], our architecture shows reduced latency with comparable throughput and area. The 64K point FFT architecture was synthesized using a 130nm CMOS technology which resulted in a throughput of 1.4 GSPS and latency of 47.7 mu s with a maximum clock frequency of 350MHz. When compared to 5], the latency is reduced by 303 mu s with 50.8% reduction in area.

Evaluación del efecto de incluir los granos de leguminosas (Canavalia ensiformis, vigna Sinensis y stizolobium deeringianum) en la suplementación concentrada de vacas lecheras

Se realizó un experimento con nueve vacas lecheras raza Brahman Pardo Suizo en diferentes períodos de lactancia superior a los tres meses, diferentes números de partos, con una producción promedio de 2.35 litros/vaca/día y un peso vivo promedio de 350 kg. La duración del experimento fue de 45 días (15 días por periodo) con el objetivo de evaluar el efecto de incluir los granos de leguminosas canavalia, terciopelo y caupi sobre la producción de leche y estimar la utilidad económica. Las vacas se establecieron en un solo bloque donde los tres tratamientos se asignaron al azar mediante el modelo esta dístico (Swich back). No se encontró diferencias significativas (P < 0.05) para los tres tratamientos que estaban constituidas por TA (20.13 % de terciopelo v 79.87% por otros ingredientes), el TB (23.66% de canavalia y 76.34 % otros ingredientes) y el TC (25.35 de Caupi y 74.7% otros ingredientes lográndose establecer tres raciones isoprotéicas e isoenergéticas. Los promedios de producción de leche obtenidos fueron de 4.11, 3.29 y 3.5 Kg para el TA. TB y TC respectivamente. El análisis económico evidencia que las mejores utilidades se obtuvieron con el TA con C$290.04 y C$ 320.08. Se concluye que se puede suministrar los granos de leguminosas como ingrediente en la suplementación concentrada a vacas lecheras como una alternativa de alimentación en los meses de verano.

Producción y composición química de la avispa (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis), a diferentes frecuencias de corte, Rancho Ebenezer, Masaya, Nicaragua

Se llevó a cabo un estudio durante el período lluvioso del año 2005, ‘Rancho Agropecológico’ “EBENEZER” Comarca ‘Hoja Chigüe’ Niquinohomo, Masaya, Nicaragua. El objetivo fue determinar la producción de materia seca y composición química de la biomasa a diferentes frecuencias de corte en Avispa (Hibiscus rosa - sinensis) . Se utilizó un diseño de bloques completos al azar (BCA) con tres repeticiones. Las frecuencias de corte fueron; 30, 45 y 60 días de rebrote. Las variables de estudio fueron longitud de rebrotes (cm), rendimiento de materia seca (kg de MS/ha/corte), porcentajes de materia seca, proteína cruda, fibra cruda, calcio y fósforo. Se realizaron análisis de varianza (ANDEVA) y separaciones de medias, usando Duncan (P<0.05). Las variables codificadas en porcentajes se transformaron, según, dos veces por el arco seno de la raíz cuadrada de la proporción, con el fin de ajustar los datos porcentuales a una distribución normal, Los resultados indican diferencias significativ as entre tratamientos para las variables; longitud de rebrote ( 29.90 y 1 3 .57 cm para frecuencias de 60 y 30 días); rendimiento de materia seca (1, 279.2 y 346.0 kg/ha/corte, para las mismas frecuencias). Se encontraron diferencias significativas para la materia seca (2 6.03, 15.15% para 60 y 30 días), proteína cruda (18.62 y, 23.16% para las mismas frecuencias), y fibra cruda (20.16 VS 15.67 % para 60 y 30 días). En cuanto a minerales, se encontró diferencias estadísticas para el fósforo no así, para el caso del calcio. El estudio permitió demostrar diferencias marcadas en la producción y composición química del forraje de Avispa (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis), observándose que, a diferencias de otros forrajes, los parámetros de calidad no presentan una disminución drástica a medida que se aumenta la edad de rebrote, con las frecuencias estudiadas.