The processing methods, phytochemistry and pharmacology of Gastrodia elata Bl.: A comprehensive review

The role of gastrodin in the management of CNS-related diseases: Underlying mechanisms to therapeutic perspectives

Central nervous system (CNS)-related diseases have a high mortality rate, are a serious threat to physical and mental health, and have always been an important area of research. Gastrodin, the main active metabolite of Gastrodia elata Blume, used in Chinese medicine and food, has a wide range of pharmacological effects, mostly related to CNS disorders. This review aims to systematically summarize and discuss the effects and underlying mechanisms of gastrodin in the treatment of CNS diseases, and to assess its potential for further development as a lead drug in both biomedicine and traditional Chinese medicine. Studies on the pharmacological effects of gastrodin on the CNS indicate that it may exert anti-neurodegenerative, cerebrovascular protective, and ameliorative effects on diabetic encephalopathy, perioperative neurocognitive dysfunction, epilepsy, Tourette's syndrome, depression and anxiety, and sleep disorders through various mechanisms. To date, 110 gastrodin products have been approved for clinical use, but further multicenter clinical case-control studies are relatively scarce. Preclinical studies have confirmed that gastrodin can be used to treat CNS-related disorders. However, important concerns need to be addressed in the context of likely non-specific, assay interfering effects when gastrodin is studied using in vitro and in silico approaches, calling for a systematic assessment of the evidence to date. High-quality clinical trials should have priority to evaluate the therapeutic safety and clinical efficacy of gastrodin. Further experimental research using appropriate in vivo models is also needed, focusing on neurodegenerative diseases, cerebral ischemic and hypoxic diseases, brain damage caused by methamphetamine or heavy metals, and epilepsy.

Digestive characteristics of Gastrodia elata Blume polysaccharide and related impacts on human gut microbiota in vitro

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE

Gastrodia elata Blume is a traditional Chinese medicine with the effects of improving the deficiency of the body and maintaining health, and polysaccharide (GEP) is one of the effective ingredients to play these activities of G. elata. Traditionally, G. elata is orally administered, so the activities of GEP are associated with digestive and intestinal metabolism. However, the digestive behavior of GEP and its effects on the human gut microbiota are unclear and need to be fully studied.

AIM OF THE STUDY

This study aimed to investigate the changes in structural characteristics of GEP during digestion and the related impacts of its digestive product on gut microbiota in human fecal fermentation, and to explain the beneficial mechanism of GEP on human health from the perspective of digestive characteristics and "gut" axis.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The changes of reducing sugars, free monosaccharides and physicochemical properties of GEP during digestion were investigated by GPC, HPLC, FT-IR, CD, NMR, SEM, and TGA. Moreover, polysaccharide consumption, pH value changes, SCFAs production, and changes in gut microbiota during fermentation were also discussed.

RESULTS

During digestion of GEP, glucose was partially released causing a decrease in molecular weight, and a change in monosaccharide composition. In addition, the characteristics of GEP before and after digestion, including configuration, morphology, and stability, were different. The digestive product of GEP was polysaccharide (GEP-I), which actively participated in the fecal fermentation process. As the fermentation time increased, the utilization of GEP-I by the microbiota gradually increased. The abundance of probiotics such as Bifidobacterium, Collinsella, Prevotella, and Faecalibacterium was significantly increased, and the abundance of pathogenic Shigella, Dorea, Desulfovibrio, and Blautia was significantly inhibited, thereby suggesting that GEP has the potential to maintain human health through the "gut" axis. In addition, the beneficial health effects of GEP-I have also been observed in the influence of microbial metabolites. During the fermentation of GEP-I, the pH value gradually decreased, and the contents of beneficial metabolites such as acetic acid, propionic acid, and caproic acid significantly increased.

CONCLUSION

The structure of GEP changed significantly during digestion, and its digestive product had the potential to maintain human health by regulating gut microbiota, which may be one of the active mechanisms of GEP.

Gastrodin: a comprehensive pharmacological review

Tianma is the dried tuber of Gastrodia elata Blume (G. elata), which is frequently utilized in clinical practice as a traditional Chinese medicine. Gastrodin (GAS) is the main active ingredient of Tianma, which has good pharmacological activity. Therefore, for the first time, this review focused on the extraction, synthesis, pharmacological effects, and derivatives of GAS and to investigate additional development options for GAS. The use of microorganisms to create GAS is a promising method. GAS has good efficacy in the treatment of neurological diseases, cardiovascular diseases, endocrine diseases, and liver diseases. GAS has significant anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, neuroprotective, vascular protective, blood sugar lowering, lipid-regulating, analgesic, anticancer, and antiviral effects. The mechanism involves various signaling pathways such as Nrf2, NF-κB, PI3K/AKT, and AMPK. In addition, the derivatives of GAS and biomaterials synthesized by GAS and PU suggested a broader application of GAS. The research on GAS is thoroughly summarized in this paper, which has useful applications for tackling a variety of disorders and exhibits good development value.

Analysis of online prescription patterns in Chinese patients with sequelae of cerebral infarction: a real-world study

Cerebral infarction (CI) is a common cerebrovascular disease worldwide, and the burden caused by the sequelae of CI has increased significantly. However, current treatment guidelines lack standardized recommendations for pharmacotherapy of sequelae of CI. This retrospective study collected and analyzed 1.98 million prescriptions concerning sequelae of CI from patients admitted to Zhiyun Health Internet Hospital in 2022. The mean age of patients was 66.2 ± 11.4 years, and 52.40% were male. 79.73% had one or more comorbidities. For treatment, the prescriptions of 1-, 2- and ≥ 3-drug accounted for 64.55%, 23.77% and 11.68% respectively. Chinese patent medicine (CPM) prescriptions, western medicine (WM) prescriptions, and CPM and WM combined (CPM + WM) prescriptions accounted for 53.81%, 27.33%, and 18.86% respectively. In CPM prescriptions, the most frequently prescribed medications were Salvia miltiorrhiza (34.81%), Ginkgo biloba (24.96%), Panax notoginseng (20.67%), Gastrodia (7.15%) and Ligusticum Wallichii (4.90%). For WM prescriptions, the most commonly prescribed agents were anti-hypertensive (32.82%), anti-thrombotic (16.06%), vasodilator (15.70%), anti-dementia (10.88%), and lipid-lowering (9.58%) drugs. Among CPM + WM prescriptions, 72.61% had CPM/WM = 1, 21.20% had CPM/WM < 1, and 6.19% had CPM/WM > 1. This research utilized real-world data extracted from internet hospitals in China to present valuable evidence of online prescription patterns among patients experiencing sequelae of CI.

E-eye and FT-NIR combined with multivariate algorithms to rapidly evaluate the dynamic changes in the quality of Gastrodia elata during steaming process

Gastrodia elata (GE) is traditionally subjected to steaming, and steaming duration plays a crucially important role in determining GE quality. This study examined the variations in bioactive components during the steaming process and proposed the utilization of electronic eye and Fourier Transform near-infrared (FT-NIR) spectroscopy for quality assessment. The findings revealed that the levels of parishin E parishin B, parishin A, and gastrodin initially rose and subsequently declined, while 4-Hydroxybenzyl alcohol exhibited a rapid decrease followed by stabilization. With prolonged steaming, the brightness of GE decreased, while the red and yellow tones became more pronounced and the color saturation increased. FT-NIR divided the steaming process into three stages: 0 min (raw GE), 0-9 min (partially steamed GE), and 9-30 min (fully steamed GE), and the partial least squares regression models effectively predicted the levels of five components. Overall, this study provided valuable insights into quality control in food processing.

Decrease in beneficial bacteria and increase in harmful bacteria in Gastrodia seedlings and their surrounding soil are mainly responsible for degradation of Gastrodia asexual propagation

Introduction

Asexual reproduction of Gastrodia elata Bl. f. glauca S. chow (GeB) produces degeneration with increasing number of GeB. Therefore, we analyzed the microorganisms of GeB seedlings and surrounding soil by Illumina Miseq high-throughput sequencing technology.

Methods

In this study, Illumina Miseq high-throughput sequencing technology was applied to analyze the types and quantities of GeB seedlings and surrounding soil microorganisms in the first to third generations of asexual reproduction, isolated and identified the dominant strains of GeB in the first to third generations and screened the antagonistic bacteria of its pathogenic fungi, and evaluated the effects of beneficial bacteria on the production performance of seedlings planted with GeB.

Results

With an increase in the number of asexual reproductive generations, the number of pathogenic fungi and bacteria in GeB seedlings and the surrounding soil increased, and the number of beneficial fungi and bacteria decreased. Pseudomonas sp., Agrobacterium rhizomes, and Herbaspirillum hiltneri were isolated and identified in the first generation, and Trichoderma harzianum, Penicillium viridiatum, Fusarium oxysporum, and Novosphingobium sp. Were isolated and identified in the third generation. Antagonistic strains of the three pathogenic bacterial strains were screened. In conclusion, beneficial bacteria significantly improved the production performance of asexual reproductive seedlings planted with GeB.

Discussion

In conclusion, our findings suggested that the microorganisms of GeB seedlings and the surrounding soil change as the number of generations of GeB reproduction increases, disrupts the microecological balance of surrounding soil and endophytic microbiomes.This study provides a theoretical basis for the degradation of asexual reproduction in GeB.

Global metabolic profile and multiple phytometabolites in the different varieties of Gastrodia elata Blume

Gastrodia elata Blume (Tianma in Chinese), a myco-heterotrophic orchid, is widely distributed in China. Tubers derived from this orchid are traditionally used as both medicinal and edible materials. At present, five primary varieties of G. elata are recorded in the "Flora of China." Among them, the three main varieties currently in artificial cultivation are G. elata f. elata (GR, red stem), G. elata f. glauca (GB, black stem), and G. elata f. viridis (GG, green stem). In our study, the metabolic profiles and chemical composition of these three varieties were determined via UPLC-MS/MS and HPLC-UV. In total, 11,132 metabolites were detected, from which multiple phytometabolites were identified as aromatic compounds, heteroatomic compounds, furans, carbohydrates, organic acids, and their derivatives. A number of differentially expressed metabolites (DEMs) were annotated as bioactive ingredients. Overall, parishins, vanilloloside, and gastrodin A/B in the GB group were markedly higher, whereas gastrodin, gastrol, and syringic acid were more enriched in the GG or GR groups. Moreover, HPLC fingerprint analysis also found six metabolites used as markers for the identification of Gastrodiae Rhizoma in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia, which were also typical DEMs in metabolomics. Of these, gastrodin, 4-hydroxybenzyl alcohol, citric acid, and adenosine were quantitatively detected, showing a similar result with the metabolomic data. In summary, our findings provide novel insights into the phytochemical ingredients of different G. elata varieties, highlighting diverse biological activities and healthcare value.