Atherosclerosis lesion is accelerated by persistent systemic inflammation but attenuated by saponins from Panax Notoginseng in rabbits

Panax notoginseng for Inflammation-Related Chronic Diseases: A Review on the Modulations of Multiple Pathways

Panax notoginseng (P. notoginseng) is a well-known and commonly used Chinese herbal medicine in Asian countries. As one of the major species in the Panax genus, it has a distinct chemical composition and medical application compared with other species. P. notoginseng attracts attention and interest due to its potential therapeutic effects not only on blood diseases, but also other kinds of human chronic disorders. This paper critically reviewed the latest advance of knowledge on the pharmacological effects of P. notoginseng on a variety of chronic diseases including inflammatory bowel disease, arthritis, ischemia, atherosclerosis, Alzheimer disease and trauma, as well as hyperlipidemia, diabetes, and so on. As inflammation is considered the fundamental factor involved in the pathogenesis of chronic diseases, our review therefore focuses on understanding the involvement of classical inflammatory pathways underlying the mechanism of action of P. notoginseng. Potential clinical application was also discussed. Furthermore, by combining with network pharmacology, we introduced the major bioactive components of P. notoginseng, analyzed their cellular targets and associated signaling pathways. In conclusion, this review identified inflammatory pathway as the key signaling for determining the efficacy of P. notoginseng on chronic diseases. It is speculated that P. notoginseng is a multi-targeted agent with an anti-inflammatory property in the adjuvant and alternative treatment of human chronic diseases.

Quality Assessment of Panax notoginseng from Different Regions through the Analysis of Marker Chemicals, Biological Potency and Ecological Factors

Panax notoginseng (Burk.) F.H. Chen, called Sanqi in China, is a perennial herb that has been used as a medicinal herb in traditional Chinese medicine for more than 400 years. Because notoginseng is included in many proprietary Chinese medicines, the quality of notoginseng directly affects its efficacy and safety. However, considering the complex and special growth environment requirements of notoginseng, it is insufficient to evaluate its quality based solely on the analysis of marker chemicals. Thus, in this study, we tried to evaluate the quality of notoginseng with integrated indicators: (1) the concentration of five marker chemicals, notoginsenoside R1, ginsenoside Rg1, ginsenoside Re, ginsenoside Rb1 and ginsenoside Rd; (2) the anticoagulant activity (ACA); and (3) twenty-one ecological factors (e.g., longitude, latitude, elevation and soil data). Using these 27 parameters, notoginseng from different regions could be distinguished effectively, indicating a remarkable divergence of quality. A correlation analysis showed that variations of the ecological factors were closely associated with the saponins content and biopotency. For instance, the total nitrogen (TN), alkali hydrolysis nitrogen (AHN) and rapidly available potassium (RAPT) were significantly correlated with ACA, and RAPT was significantly correlated with the content of ginsenoside Rd and notoginsenoside R1. The results demonstrated that the high-quality notoginseng was produced from the emerging regions such as Kunming, Qujing and Honghe, which had higher ACA and saponin content than the notoginseng produced in traditional regions such as Wenshan and Baise.

Traditional uses, botany, phytochemistry, pharmacology and toxicology of Panax notoginseng (Burk.) F.H. Chen: A review

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE

Panax notoginseng (Burk.) F.H. Chen is a widely used traditional Chinese medicine known as Sanqi or Tianqi in China. This plant, which is distributed primarily in the southwest of China, has wide-ranging pharmacological effects and can be used to treat cardiovascular diseases, pain, inflammation and trauma as well as internal and external bleeding due to injury.

AIMS OF THE REVIEW

This paper provides up-to-date information on investigations of this plant, including its botany, ethnopharmacology, phytochemistry, pharmacology and toxicology. The possible uses and perspectives for future investigation of this plant are also discussed.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The relevant information on Panax notoginseng (Burk.) F.H. Chen was collected from numerous resources, including classic books about Chinese herbal medicine, and scientific databases, including Pubmed, SciFinder, ACS, Ebsco, Elsevier, Taylor, Wiley and CNKI.

RESULTS

More than 200 chemical compounds have been isolated from Panax notoginseng (Burk.) F.H. Chen, including saponins, flavonoids and cyclopeptides. The plant has pharmacological effects on the cardiovascular system, immune system as well as anti-inflammatory, anti-atherosclerotic, haemostatic and anti-tumour activities, etc.

CONCLUSIONS

Panax notoginseng is a valuable traditional Chinese medical herb with multiple pharmacological effects. This review summarizes the botany, ethnopharmacology, phytochemistry, pharmacology and toxicology of P. notoginseng, and presents the constituents and their corresponding chemical structures found in P. notoginseng comprehensively for the first time. Future research into its phytochemistry of bio-active components should be performed by using bioactivity-guided isolation strategies. Further work on elucidation of the structure-function relationship among saponins, understanding of multi-target network pharmacology of P. notoginseng, as well as developing its new clinical usage and comprehensive utilize will enhance the therapeutic potentials of P. notoginseng.

Naturally derived anti-inflammatory compounds from Chinese medicinal plants

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE

Though inflammatory response is beneficial to body damage repair, if it is out of control, it can produce adverse effects on the body. Although purely western anti-inflammatory drugs, orthodox medicines, can control inflammation occurrence and development, it is not enough. The clinical efficacy of anti-inflammation therapies is unsatisfactory, thus the search for new anti-inflammation continues. Chinese Material Medica (CMM) remains a promising source of new therapeutic agents. CMM and herbal formulae from Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), unorthodox medicines, play an improtant anti-inflammatory role in multi-targets, multi-levels, and multi-ways in treating inflammation diseases in a long history in China, based on their multi-active ingredient characteristics. Due to these reasons, recently, CMM has been commercialized as an anti-inflammation agent which has become increasingly popular in the world health drug markets. Major research contributions in ethnopharmacology have generated vast amount of data associated with CMM in anti-inflammtion aspect. Therefore, a systematic introduction of CMM anti-inflammatory research progress is of great importance and necessity.

AIM OF THE STUDY

This paper strives to describe the progress of CMM in the treatment of inflammatory diseases from different aspects, and provide the essential theoretical support and scientific evidence for the further development and utilization of CMM resources as a potential anti-inflammation drug through a variety of databases.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Literature survey was performed via electronic search (SciFinder®, Pubmed®, Google Scholar and Web of Science) on papers and patents and by systematic research in ethnopharmacological literature at various university libraries.

RESULTS

This review mainly introduced the current research on the anti-inflammatory active ingredient, anti-inflammatory effects of CMM, their mechanism, anti-inflammatory drug development of CMM, and toxicological information.

CONCLUSION

CMM is used clinically to treat inflammation symptoms in TCM, and its effect is mediated by multiple targets through multiple active ingredients. Although scholars around the world have made studies on the anti-inflammatory studies of CMM from different pathways and aspects and have made substantial progress, further studies are warranted to delineate the inflammation actions in more cogency models, establish the toxicological profiles and quality standards, assess the potentials of CMM in clinical applications, and make more convenient preparations easy to administrate for patients. Development of the clinically anti-inflammatory drugs are also warranted.

Lipid-regulating effect of traditional chinese medicine: mechanisms of actions

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been increasingly used for the treatment of dyslipidemia and cardiovascular disease. Recently, much progress has been made in studies on the mechanisms of action of the lipid-regulating effect of TCM in animal experiments. Current researches showed that the lipid-regulating effect of TCM may be related to the following actions: (1) inhibiting intestinal absorption of lipids; (2) reducing the biosynthesis of endogenous lipids; (3) increasing the catabolism of lipid, sterol substances in live system; (4) increasing the secretion of sterol substances in live system; (5) regulating transcription factors related to lipid metabolism. This paper provides an overview of the recent advances and discusses their implications in future development of lipid-lowering drugs from TCM.

Effects of Panax notoginseng saponins on proliferation and apoptosis of vascular smooth muscle cells

AIM OF THE STUDY

Atherosclerosis is a common cardiovascular disease, and linked with the development of many cardiovascular complications, such as myocardial ischemia and stroke. Although pathogenesis of atherosclerosis is not completely elucidated, increasing evidence has demonstrated that abnormal proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) plays an important role in formation of atherosclerosis. Previous studies showed that saponins from Panax notoginseng (PNS) possess anti-atherosclerotic properties. However, the mechanism of PNS against atherosclerosis is not well understood. Therefore, the present study observed the effects of PNS on proliferation and apoptosis of VSMCs.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Rat VSMCs were cultured, and platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) was used to stimulate cell proliferation. The viability of VSMCs was assessed with the MTT method. VSMCs apoptosis was detected by flow cytometry. Expressions of apoptosis related protein p53, Bax, caspase-3 and Bcl-2 were determined using Western blot.

RESULTS

Pretreatment of the cells with PNS (200, 400, 800 μg/mL) significantly inhibited proliferation of PDGF-stimulated VSMCs, and induced apoptosis of the proliferated VSMCs in a concentration-dependent way. Western blot analysis showed that PNS upregulated expressions of pro-apoptotic protein p53, Bax and caspase-3, downregulated expression of anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2, and enlarged Bax/Bcl-2 ratio in the proliferated VSMCs induced by PDGF.

CONCLUSIONS

This study demonstrates that PNS both inhibits VSMCs proliferation and induces VSMCs apoptosis through upregulating p53, Bax, caspase-3 expressions and downregulating Bcl-2 expression, which constitute the pharmacological basis of its anti-atherosclerotic action.