Chromenes and benzofurans of the asteraceae, their chemistry and biological significance

Increased production of antigen-specific immunoglobulins G and M following in vivo treatment with the medicinal plants Echinacea angustifolia and Hydrastis canadensis.

Kinetic difference of berberine between hippocampus and plasma in rat after intravenous administration of Coptidis rhizoma extract.

Huanglian is an herb that is widely used in China for the treatment of gastroenteritis. We elected to determine whether huanglian could inhibit tumor cell growth by modulating molecular events directly associated with the cell cycle. Huanglian inhibited tumor growth and colony formation of gastric, colon, and breast cancer cell lines in a time- and dose-dependent manner. Cell growth was completely inhibited after 3 days of continuous drug exposure to 10 μg/ml of herb. This degree of growth inhibition was significantly greater than that observed with berberine, the major constituent of the herb. The inhibition of cell growth by huanglian was associated with up to 8-fold suppression of cyclin B1 protein. This resulted in complete inhibition of cdc2 kinase activity and accumulation of cells in G2. The mRNA expression of cyclin B1 was not changed after huanglian treatment. There was no change in the protein expression of cyclins A or E. Therefore, the effect of huanglian on inhibiting tumor growth seems to be mediated by the selective suppression of cyclin B1, which results in the inhibition of cdc2 kinase activity. Inhibition of cyclin dependent kinase (cdk) activity is emerging as an attractive target for cancer chemotherapy. Huanglian represents a class of agents that can inhibit tumor cell growth by directly suppressing the expression of a cyclin subunit that is critical for cell cycle progression. These results indicate that traditional Chinese herbs may represent a new source of agents designed for selective inhibition of cyclin dependent kinases in cancer therapy.

Huanglian, A chinese herbal extract, inhibits cell growth by suppressing the expression of cyclin B1 and inhibiting CDC2 kinase activity in human cancer cells.

Simultaneous determination of berberine and palmatine in rat plasma by HPLC-ESI-MS after oral administration of traditional Chinese medicinal preparation Huang-Lian-Jie-Du decoction and the pharmacokinetic application of the method.

The present study was carried out to evaluate the bioequivalence between Coptidis Rhizoma and the cultured cells of Coptis japonica Makino var. dissecta Nakai to compare the concentration of berberine in the rat plasma after oral administration of both aqueous extracts. The concentration of berberine in the plasma after oral administration of both extracts was determined by HPLC. It was found that the values of time required for the maximum concentration (Tmax), the maximum concentration (Cmax) and the area under the plasma-time curve (AUC24h) of berberine in the rat plasma after oral administration of both extracts were about the same. It was also found that the values of Tmax, Cmax and AUC24h of berberine after oral administration of both extracts and an aqueous extract of Glycyrrhizae Radix were about the same as that of individual administration of both extracts. From these results, to evaluate the bioequivalence between Coptidis Rhizoma and cultured cells, it is important that the values of Tmax, Cmax and AUC24h of berberine after oral administration of both extracts are not different, and about the same values of berberine by the combined use of both extracts and the aqueous extract of other crude drugs are required.

[Comparative studies on concentration of berberine in plasma after oral administration of coptidis rhizoma extract, its cultured cells extract, and combined use of these extracts and glycyrrhizae radix extract in rats].

Hideyo Suzuki

Papers

[Comparative studies on concentration of berberine in plasma after oral administration of coptidis rhizoma extract, its cultured cells extract, and combined use of these extracts and glycyrrhizae radix extract in rats].

Normal Phase High-Performance Liquid Chromatography of Ephedra Alkaloids

[Studies on lan-so and ze-lan. I. On the constituents of Eupatorium spp. (1) (author's transl)].