药食同源中药抗衰老研究进展

"药食同源"即"医食同源,药食同根",药食同源中药兼具了丰富的营养价值和药用价值。近年来,对药食同源中药进行抗衰老研究的报道越来越多,药食同源中药所具有的抗衰老活性也逐渐被人们所认知,因此将其开发成抗衰老药物具有广阔的发展前景。本文以药食同源中药为研究对象,通过其抗氧化活性以及已报道药食同源中药抗衰老研究的文献数量,筛选出可以用作抗衰老研究的中药;同时,以衰老机制为基础,对药食同源中药的研究进行综述,并对其今后的研究方向进行展望。     

药食两用中药降血脂作用研究进展

药食两用中药既能作为药品又能作为食品,可以长期服用,并对某些慢性疾病有预防和控制作用,故其已广泛应用于医药与保健行业。本文主要介绍了山楂、葛根、薏苡仁、决明子、百合、山药、白扁豆、莱菔子八种常用药食两用中药的临床应用情况及其降血脂有效成分,并综述了其降血脂作用机制,为降血脂中药的开发和利用提供参考。     

A review of the chemistry and pharmacology of the date fruits (Phoenix dactylifera L.)

Phoenix dactylifera L., commonly known as the date palm is a primeval plant and has been cultivated for its edible fruit in the desert oasis of the Arab world for centuries. The fruits are a rich source of carbohydrates, dietary fibers, certain essential vitamins and minerals. The date pits are also an excellent source of dietary fiber and contain considerable amounts of minerals, lipids and protein. In addition to its dietary use the dates are of medicinal use and are used to treat a variety of ailments in the various traditional systems of medicine. Phytochemical investigations have revealed that the fruits contain anthocyanins, phenolics, sterols, carotenoids, procyanidins and flavonoids, compounds known to possess multiple beneficial effects. Preclinical studies have shown that the date fruits possess free radical scavenging, antioxidant, antimutagenic, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, gastroprotective, hepatoprotective, nephroprotective, anticancer and immunostimulant activities. This review presents a comprehensive analysis of the phytochemistry and validated pharmacological properties of date fruits and the seeds.     

Date fruit: chemical composition,nutritional and medicinal values,products

Date fruit has served as a staple food in the Arab world for centuries. Worldwide production of date fruit has increased almost threefold over the last 40 years, reaching 7.68 million tons in 2010. Date fruit can provide many essential nutrients and potential health benefits to the consumer. Date fruit goes through four ripening stages named kimri, khalal, rutab and tamer. The main chemical components of date fruit include carbohydrates, dietary fibre, enzymes, protein, fat, minerals, vitamins, phenolic acids and carotenoids. The chemical composition of date fruit varies according to ripening stage, cultivar, growing environment, postharvest conditions, etc. The nutritional and medicinal activities of date fruit are related to its chemical composition. Many studies have shown that date fruit has antioxidant, antimutagenic, anti‐inflammatory, gastroprotective, hepatoprotective, nephroprotective, anticancer and immunostimulant activities. Various date fruit‐based products such as date syrup, date paste, date juice and their derived products are available. Date by‐products can be used as raw materials for the production of value‐added products such as organic acids, exopolysaccharides, antibiotics, date‐flavoured probiotic‐fermented dairy produce, bakery yeasts, etc. In this paper the chemical composition and nutritional and medicinal values of date fruit as well as date fruit‐based products are reviewed . © 2013 Society of Chemical Industry     

Herbs-are they safe enough? an overview

Drugs based on herbs have become a common form of therapy as well as for prophylaxis because they are often perceived as being natural and therefore harmless. Today they are one of the hottest trends and most sought after in the field of nutrition or herbal therapeutics. As the use of complementary medicine grows, so does the knowledge that many compounds in common use not only have a significant effect on the body but may also interact with pharmaceuticals and also with other alternative products. Concurrent use of herbs with drugs may mimic, magnify, or oppose the effect of drugs leading to herb-drug interactions. Currently, there is very little information published on herb-herb or herb-drug interactions as compared to the use of herbs which is progressively growing across the world. Many reports of herb-drug interactions are sketchy and lack laboratory analysis of suspect preparations. Health-care practitioners should caution patients against mixing herbs and pharmaceutical drugs. The article reviews the recent literature on the adverse effects of herbal remedies including the most widely sold herbal medicinal products, like liquorice, garlic, ginger, green tea, and turmeric, etc., and reinforce the safety aspect of herbal products, which are considered to be relatively safe by common people.     

Update on the chemopreventive effects of ginger and its phytochemicals

The rhizomes of Zingiber officinale Roscoe (Zingiberaceae), commonly known as ginger, is one of the most widely used spice and condiment. It is also an integral part of many traditional medicines and has been extensively used in Chinese, Ayurvedic, Tibb-Unani, Srilankan, Arabic, and African traditional medicines, since antiquity, for many unrelated human ailments including common colds, fever, sore throats, vomiting, motion sickness, gastrointestinal complications, indigestion, constipation, arthritis, rheumatism, sprains, muscular aches, pains, cramps, hypertension, dementia, fever, infectious diseases, and helminthiasis. The putative active compounds are nonvolatile pungent principles, namely gingerols, shogaols, paradols, and zingerone. These compounds are some of the extensively studied phytochemicals and account for the antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antiemetic, and gastroprotective activities. A number of preclinical investigations with a wide variety of assay systems and carcinogens have shown that ginger and its compounds possess chemopreventive and antineoplastic effects. A number of mechanisms have been observed to be involved in the chemopreventive effects of ginger. The cancer preventive activities of ginger are supposed to be mainly due to free radical scavenging, antioxidant pathways, alteration of gene expressions, and induction of apoptosis, all of which contribute towards decrease in tumor initiation, promotion, and progression. This review provides concise information from preclinical studies with both cell culture models and relevant animal studies by focusing on the mechanisms responsible for the chemopreventive action. The conclusion describes directions for future research to establish its activity and utility as a human cancer preventive and therapeutic drug. The above-mentioned mechanisms of ginger seem to be promising for cancer prevention; however, further clinical studies are warranted to assess the efficacy and safety of ginger.     

黔东北药膳用中药材资源调查与开发现状——以铜仁地区为例

随着营养健康产业的发展,为探索铜仁地区新的经济增长点,文中对该区中药材在药膳行业中的利用现状进行调研,从该区300多种中药材资源中,筛选出10种资源丰富并可以作为药膳使用的中药材,对其相关药膳的制作、功效等进行介绍,为该区药膳产业及其相关经济行业的发展提供参考。     

The reliability of traditional authentication – A case of ginseng misfit

Ginseng is a famous herb in traditional Chinese medicine. Herbs like ginseng have traditionally been authenticated by morphological and histological means, but it is difficult to identify these herbs nowadays since they look morphologically similar. The quality of food and pharmaceutical products is important for ensuring efficacy and consumer safety. Although several studies have stated that these traditional methods of authenticating ginseng are now hardly reliable, there have been little or no studies which have documented the reliability of such approaches. We report in this study a case of misidentification of ginsengs based on traditional methods of authentication via morphology, and the ability of using infrared spectroscopy and principal component analysis as a rapid form of quality surveillance by discriminating this error.     

磁性固相萃取技术在食品和中药材分析前处理中的应用进展

食品安全和质量控制是关系国计民生的大事, 经常应用于日常生活的中药材的药效物质和安全性也越来越受到重视。食品和中药材真伪鉴定、品质(营养或功效成分)及安全性质量控制分析十分重要, 而分析前预处理是确保分析结果准确无误的关键环节之一。新型前处理技术-磁性固相萃取技术(magnetic solid-phase extraction, MSPE)由于具有萃取时间短、有机溶剂使用量少和操作简便等优点而被越来越多地应用于样品的预处理。本文综述了近年来MSPE在食品和中药材分析预处理中的应用, 分析了其在食品和中药材真伪鉴定、品质及安全性质量控制分析中的应用现状, 并展望了MSPE技术的发展趋势, 以期加速其在食品和中药材分析预处理中的应用。     

解酒饮料冲剂口味的研究

以具有解酒功能的中草药为主要原料,研制一种易于保存的酒后保健饮料冲剂,对影响解酒饮料口味的主要因素与用量进行研究,结果表明最佳用量为：中草药20%、白砂糖35%、柠檬酸0.05%。     

Fermentation,a feasible strategy for enhancing bioactivity of herbal medicines

Herbal drugs, which possess immunomodulatory, anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetic, anti-infective, and anti-allergic activities, encompass various therapeutic areas, and have been used as traditional medicines for thousands of years. Fermentation is an indispensable traditional technology for the improving the efficacy or reducing adverse effects of herbal medicines. The fermentation process has been shown to improve biological properties of plants, vegetables, and herbs. More specifically, fermentation causes decomposition and/or biotransformation of complex substrates into compatible components, thereby modulating product properties or changing the quantity of certain bioactive compounds. Accumulating evidence indicates the valuable contribution of probiotics and their fermented food products to health. In recent years, considerable attention has been paid to fermentation technology across the globe for improving herbal drugs through production and enrichment of additional bioactive metabolites of medicinal importance including isoflavones, saponins, phytosterols, and phenols. For example, the phenolic contents of the herbal preparation can be increased as a consequence of fermentation and a positive correlation between polyphenols and the anti-oxidant activities of herbs has been well demonstrated. This is in agreement with evidence showing fermentation-mediated enhancement of the pharmacological properties and therapeutic efficacies of herbal formulations against a number of diseases including obesity and inflammation. The subject of fermentation of herbal preparations has been maturing and gaining considerable attention of scientific and technical communities worldwide. In the current review we have addressed these issues in detail with emphasis on understanding the contribution of fermentation-derived bioactive substances to therapies against a number of diseases.     

药食两用天麻的安全性评价研究进展

天麻是我国的名贵中药材,作为药食同源物质被广泛食用及药用。国家相关部门已经批准,将天麻按照传统既是食品又是中药材的物质进行试点管理。随着天麻药食同源在现代食品领域的广泛应用,有关天麻食品、功能性食品、活性物质、复方制剂等天麻制品的研究开发会越来越多。天麻制品的毒理学研究还不够深入,多为急性、遗传毒性试验,而亚急性、长期毒性试验的数据较少;天麻素、天麻复方制剂的临床安全性评估多为联合用药评价分析,缺乏单独使用的安全性数据。因此,探讨天麻的食用安全性对天麻制品开发具有一定的参考意义。本文概述了天麻制品的毒理学研究、临床安全性评价及环境污染风险评估研究现状,为未来天麻制品的安全性评价研究提供了新方向和思路。     

Isotope dilution-GC-MS/MS analysis of 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in selected medicinal herbs used as health food additives

Medicinal herbs have a very important role in health protection and disease control, and have been used in health foods. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) have carcinogenic, biological and mutagenic effects. In this paper, the content of 16?PAHs as representative contaminants in nine Chinese medicinal herbs, as additives for health foods, was investigated in order to ensure food safety from this source. A highly sensitive isotope dilution-gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (ID-GC-MS/MS) method combined with gel permeation chromatography (GPC) and solid-phase extraction (SPE) was developed. Calibration curves showed good linearity for all PAHs (R ^2?>?0.999), and the limit of quantification (LOQ) ranged from 0.42 to 2.7?µg?kg^?1. Average recoveries for these compounds were in the range of 52.5–117%, 52.6–119% and 81.4–108% at the concentrations of 10, 50 and 250?µg?kg^?1 with RSD of 1.8–15%, 0.9–15% and 1.0–15%, respectively. The proposed method was used for the analysis of nine Chinese medicinal herbs. Total levels of PAHs varied from 98.2?µg?kg^?1 (cassia seed) to 2245?µg?kg^?1 (eucommia bark). The highest level was found for phenanthrene (Phe) in liquorice root (631.3?µg?kg^?1), indigowoad leaf (551.0?µg?kg^?1), rose flower (435.2?µg?kg^?1) and eucommia bark (432.3?µg?kg^?1). The proposed method could provide a useful basis for safety monitoring of herbs and risk management for PAHs in the health food industry.     

Date fruits (Phoenix dactylifera Linn): an emerging medicinal food

Date palm is one of the oldest trees cultivated by man. In the folk-lore, date fruits have been ascribed to have many medicinal properties when consumed either alone or in combination with other herbs. Although, fruit of the date palm served as the staple food for millions of people around the world for several centuries, studies on the health benefits are inadequate and hardly recognized as a healthy food by the health professionals and the public. In recent years, an explosion of interest in the numerous health benefits of dates had led to many in vitro and animal studies as well as the identification and quantification of various classes of phytochemicals. On the basis of available documentation in the literature on the nutritional and phytochemical composition, it is apparent that the date fruits are highly nutritious and may have several potential health benefits. Although dates are sugar-packed, many date varieties are low GI diet and refutes the dogma that dates are similar to candies and regular consumption would develop chronic diseases. More investigations in these areas would validate its beneficial effects, mechanisms of actions, and fully appreciate as a potential medicinal food for humans all around the world. Therefore, in this review we summarize the phytochemical composition, nutritional significance, and potential health benefits of date fruit consumption and discuss its great potential as a medicinal food for a number of diseases inflicting human beings.     

Establishing DNA markers to differentiate Agastache rugosa and Pogostemon cablin,which are confusedly used as medicinal herbs,using real-time PCR

Food Science and Biotechnology - Agastache rugosa and Pogostemon cablin are used as medicinal herbs and aromatic plants and belong to the family Lamiaceae. Despite differences in composition and...     

罗汉果苷的功能及应用研究进展

罗汉果是目前我国常用的药食两用药材之一。现代药理学研究发现,罗汉果苷是罗汉果的主要活性成分之一,在预防保健和治疗疾病方面具有多种生物活性,罗汉果苷广泛应用在食品添加剂,抗衰老、运动营养补剂,抗炎剂,利咽喉产品、肠道菌群调节剂、新型药物载体等方面,但存在产品开发深度不够、纯度低和药理机制探究不深入等问题。本文检索了近几年来的相关文献,对罗汉果苷的调节血糖、降脂,抗氧化应激,抗疲劳,保肝、护肝及抗肝纤维化,抗炎,改善肺功能,保护神经,抗癌和促生殖等功能活性,以及罗汉果苷应用的新产品开发进行综述,以期为罗汉果苷的进一步的研究及相关产品的开发提供参考依据。     

Performance of Drying Technologies to Ensure Microbial Safety of Dried Fruits and Vegetables

Dried fruits, vegetables, herbs, and spices are produced in and sourced from many countries worldwide, but they have been increasingly reported to be involved in outbreaks and alerts due to the presence of foodborne pathogens such as Salmonella. These dried products are mainly produced by solar drying and conventional air drying, but a wide range of drying technologies are available. From a technological point of view the general trend is to optimize and standardize the drying process to ensure high‐quality products to be offered. Drying technologies are mainly evaluated for their performance to reduce water activity at low energy cost while maintaining good sensorial quality of the dried product. However, as low water activity foods are increasingly recognized to support microbial survival and dried products are often consumed as they are, or are used as ingredients in many ready‐to‐eat foods, there is increasing attention to the microbiological quality and safety aspects of these products. This review presents traditional and emerging technologies to dry fruits, vegetables, herbs, and spices and discusses their potential to inactivate bacteria and viruses throughout the drying process. Overall, the microbial inactivation effect of the presented technologies has not yet been thoroughly assessed, even for traditional methods like solar drying, conventional air drying, or freeze‐drying. Emerging technologies such as dielectric (assisted) drying and low‐pressure superheated steam drying have been shown to reduce microbial populations; however, the number of studies is still low. Very few studies have focused on viral inactivation during drying processes.     

Antioxidant and anti‐inflammatory activities of water distillate and its dichloromethane extract from licorice root (Glycyrrhiza uralensis) and chemical composition of dichloromethane extract

BACKGROUND: Licorice root is one of the most widely used medicinal herbs and its medicinal properties, such as antibacterial, anti‐ulcer, anti‐tumorigenic and anti‐atherosclerotic activities, have been widely reported. However, there are only a few reports on basic chemical and biological studies of the water distilled components of licorice root. RESULTS: Chinese licorice root was water distilled and the distillate was subsequently extracted with dichloromethane. Residual aqueous solution from the extraction was fractionated using column chromatography. A total of 127 chemicals were identified in the dichloromethane extract, which inhibited hexanal oxidation by over 90% for 45 days at the level of 50 µg mL^?1. A fraction eluted from the residual aqueous solution with acetone exhibited potent antioxidant activities both in a thiobarbituric acid assay and in a malonaldehyde/gas chromatography assay. The acetone fraction also exhibited strong anti‐inflammatory activity (77.9% inhibition at the level of 62 µg mL^?1) in a lipoxygenenase inhibitor screening anti‐inflammatory assay. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrated the antioxidant and anti‐inflammatory activities of the water distillate obtained from Chinese licorice root. Some volatile chemicals among the many components identified in the water distillate exhibited antioxidant activity, suggesting that many medicinal compounds escape with water vapor into the ambient air during the preparation of herbal medicine. Copyright © 2008 Society of Chemical Industry     

Chemistry and medicinal properties of the Bakul (Mimusops elengi Linn): A review

India is one of the world's biodiversity hotspots and reports confirm that a great variety of fruiting trees are indigenous to this region of the world. Mimusops elengi Linn (family Sapotaceae) commonly known as Bakul is one such tree native to the Western Ghat region of the peninsular India. However, today this tree is also found growing in other parts of the tropical and subtropical regions of the world. The tree is of religious importance to the Hindus and finds mention in various mythological texts. The stem, barks, leaves and fruits are used in various Ayurvedic and folk medications to treat various ailments. In the prehistoric days the ripe fruits were an important source of diet but today no one knows of its dietary use as it is seldom used. Studies suggest the tree contains medicinally-important chemicals, particularly the triterpenes and alkaloids. Preclinical studies in the past five years have shown that the extracts prepared from Bakul possess antibacterial, antifungal, anticariogenic, free radical scavenging, antihyperglycemic, antineoplastic, gastroprotective, antinociceptive and diuretic effects, thus lending pharmacological support to the tree's ethnomedicinal uses in Ayurveda. In this review for the first time attempt is made at addressing the chemical constituents, medicinal uses and validated pharmacological observations of Bakul.