A Frontier Review of Nutraceutical Chinese Yam

Yams are the edible subterranean rhizomes, or tubers, of plants from the genus Dioscorea. There are approximately 600 species of yam plants in the world, with more than 90 of these growing in East Asia. One particular species, Dioscorea opposita Thunb., is highly praised as "the Chinese yam". This distinction arises from millennia of storied history, both as a nutritional food source and as a principal ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine. Among the many cultivars of Dioscorea opposita Thunb., Huai Shanyao has been widely regarded as the best. This review surveyed the historical background, physiochemical composition, applications as food and medicine, and research prospects for the Chinese yam. Modern science is finally beginning to confirm the remarkable health benefits of this yam plant, long-known to the Chinese people. Chinese yam promises anti-diabetic, anti-oxidative, anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory, anti-hyperlipidemic, anti-hypertensive, anti-cancer, and combination treatment applications, both as a functional food and as medicine.

Highly sensitive determination of multiple pesticide residues in foods by supercritical fluid chromatography coupled with ion mobility quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry

This experiment aimed to establish a green, simple and highly sensitive method (supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) coupled with ion mobility quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (IM-Q-TOF/MS)) for the detection of multiple pesticides in foods. During the experiments, several important SFC parameters, such as stationary phase, modifier, make-up solution, back-temperature and back-pressure were optimized. Here, single-field collision cross section (CCS) values and multifield CCS values of 20 pesticides were examined by IM-Q-TOF/MS as highly specific parameters with excellent experimental precision. In addition, based on accurate mass matching and fragment ion comparison, mass fragments were obtained by IM-Q-TOF/MS, which elucidated the regularities of compound structure and characteristic fragment ions. Under the optimized conditions, satisfactory linearity (R2 ≥ 0.9989) and recoveries (79.60 % to 112.97 %) were obtained. The intra- and interday precisions were favorable, with RSDs lower than 4.91 and 7.65 %, respectively. Additionally, the method showed low limits of detection (0.1-8.8 ng/mL). The proposed method has been successfully applied to the highly sensitive detection of phenylurea herbicide, triazine herbicides, organophosphorus pesticide, pyrethroid insecticide and acaricide in yam and potato.

Common Ayurvedic, Chinese traditional and Unani antidiabetic formulations- a review

Diabetes mellitus is the most widely recognized endocrine disorder which is influencing a bigger populace on the planet. There are various causes of diabetes, such as physical inactivity, obesity, family history, race, and age. Diabetes mellitus is associated with some life-threatening complications, such as neuropathy, nephropathy, various eye diseases or retinopathy, and cardiovascular disorders. Many synthetic antihyperglycemic agents are available in the market for the treatment of diabetes and its complications. But, due to some serious side effects of these synthetic agents, people are opting for herbal remedies and, therefore, they are now becoming popular. Herbal remedies have lesser side effects and higher affordability and therefore can be preferably used over synthetic agents for a long-term disorder like diabetes mellitus. In the present study, scientific research and review studies on the topic were collected from Science Direct, Scopus, PubMed, Google Scholar, and other relevant sources. The references of all the articles were screened manually for any additional information on popular polyherbal formulations in traditional Ayurvedic, Chinese, and Unani medicinal systems. It is found that these polyherbal formulations are studied for anti-diabetic potential. Furthermore, some are also investigated for mechanism of action of anti-diabetic effects. This review highlights various Ayurvedic, Chinese, and Unani polyherbal formulations commonly utilized in the management of diabetes mellitus along with their pre-clinical and clinical investigations, which will enhance the existing knowledge of the researchers.

The Traditional Usages, Chemical Components and Pharmacological Activities of Wolfiporia cocos: A Review

As an endemic species,Wolfiporia cocos (F.A. Wolf) Ryvarden & Gilb. is widely distributed, such as in China, Korea, Japan, and North America, which have had a dual-purpose resource for medicines and food for over 2000 years. The applications of W. cocos were used to treat diseases including edema, insomnia, spleen deficiency, and vomiting. What's more, there have been wide uses of such edible fungi as a function food or dietary supplement recently. Up until now, 166 kinds of chemical components have been isolated and identified from W. cocos including triterpenes, polysaccharides, sterols, diterpenes, and others. Modern pharmacological studies showed that the components hold a wide range of pharmacological activities both in vitro and in vivo, such as antitumor, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, anti-oxidant, and antidepressant activities. In addition, present results showed that the mechanisms of pharmacological activities were closely related to chemical structures, molecular signaling paths and the expression of relate proteins for polysaccharides and triterpenes. For further in-depth studies on this fungus based on the recent research status, this review provided some perspectives and systematic summaries of W. cocos in traditional uses, chemical components, pharmacological activities, separation and analysis technologies, and structure-activity relationships.

Supplementation with Ginseng, Lilii Bulbus, and Poria induces alterations in the serum metabolic profile of healthy adults

The preventive and therapeutic effects of herbal supplementation containing Ginseng, Lilii Bulbus, and Poria (GLP) on inflammation and oxidative stress in healthy adults have been demonstrated in our previous studies....

The Lanostane Triterpenoids in Poria cocos Play Beneficial Roles in Immunoregulatory Activity

Poria cocos (Schwein) F.A. Wolf (syn. Wolfiporia cocos) dried sclerotium, called fuling, is an edible, saprophytic fungus commonly used as a tonic and anti-aging traditional Chinese medicine. It is traditionally used in combination with other traditional Chinese medicines to enhance immunity. This study showed that P. cocos extract (Lipucan®) containing lanostane triterpenoids has no immunotoxicity and enhances non-specific (innate) immunity though activating natural killer cells and promotes interferon γ (IFN-γ) secretion by Type 1 T-helper (Th1) cells immune response. In addition, P. cocos extract significantly decreased interleukin (IL-4 and IL-5) secretion by Type 2 T-helper (Th2) cells immune response, which are related to the allergy response. The purified lanostane triterpenoids were first identified as active ingredients of P. cocos with enhanced non-specific immunity by promoting interferon γ (IFN-γ) secretion in a preliminary study. Our findings support that the P. cocos extract plays beneficial roles in immunoregulatory activity.

Yellow pigment formation, pigment composition, and quality of fresh-cut yam (Dioscorea opposita) slices

Fresh-cut yam (Dioscorea opposita) slices brown easily and can turn yellow under certain storage conditions. The formation conditions of yellow pigment, pigment composition, and quality of yellow fresh-cut yam slices were investigated in this study. The results showed that storage temperature, gas ratio of packaging, and slice thickness affected the formation of yellow pigmentation. The highest content of yellow pigment was found in 0.1 cm-thick yam slices stored at 25 °C for 18 h and packaged in 20% O₂ and 80% N₂. Yellow pigments were composed primarily of bisdemethoxycurcumin (73.7%) and two other unknown compounds that were not attributed to microorganisms. Yellow fresh-cut yam exhibited good quality, and the alcohol and ester extracts of yellow yams had higher oxygen radical adsorption capacity and 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl radical scavenging ability compared to white fresh-cut yam.

Fresh-cut yam (Dioscorea opposita) slices brown easily and can turn yellow under certain storage conditions.

Comparative quality of the forms of decoction pieces evaluated by multidimensional chemical analysis and chemometrics: Poria cocos, a pilot study

Many Chinese medicinal materials (CMMs) are parts of plants or fungi that have been processed into different physical forms, termed decoction pieces, that are typically boiled in water for consumption. One CMM may have several decoction pieces forms, e.g., slices, small cubes (dice), or grains. The specifications that have different morphological parameters (shape, size and thickness) for these various decoction pieces have been developed over, in some cases, centuries of practice. Nevertheless, whether and how the form of decoction pieces affects the extraction (decoction) dynamics, and quality stability during storage has not been studied. Here, we investigated Poria cocos (PC) as a pilot study; we explore how the form of PC decoction pieces affects its chemistry using multidimensional chemical evaluation such as ultra-performance liquid chromatography-photodiode array-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC-PDA-QTOF-MS/MS), ultra-performance liquid chromatography-triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (UHPLC-QqQ-MS/MS) and high performance gel permeation chromatography coupled with charged aerosol detector (HPGPC-CAD), combined with analysis of variance (ANOVA), principal component analysis (PCA), factor analysis (FA) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA). The results indicated that different specifications had significant differences, and these specifications could be divided into four groups. The comprehensive results of the chemical analyses undertaken here indicate that the highest potentially available quality of PC decoction pieces was in the forms of curl, ultra-small grains and small grains, followed by thin slices. This information not only is conducive to promoting the standardization of the specification/form of PC decoction pieces and maximizing the benefits from its utilization, but also provide a promising strategy for assessing other CMM decoction pieces in different forms.

Correlation between Quality and Geographical Origins of Poria cocos Revealed by Qualitative Fingerprint Profiling and Quantitative Determination of Triterpenoid Acids

Poria cocos (Schw.) Wolf (PC) is a well-known saprophytic fungus, and its sclerotium without the epidermis (PCS) is widely used in traditional Chinese medicine and as a functional food in many countries. PCS is normally collected from multiple geographical regions, but whether and how the quality of PCS correlates with where it grows have not been determined. This correlation could be significant both for quality control and optimum utilization of PCS as a natural resource. In this study, a qualitative fingerprint profiling method performed by ultra-performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC) with diode array detection (DAD) combining quadrupole time-of-flight-mass spectrometry (QTOF-MS/MS) and a quantitative UHPLC coupled with triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (QqQ-MS/MS) approach were established to investigate whether and how the quality of PCS correlates with its collection location. A standard fingerprint of PCS was generated by median simulation of 25 tested samples collected from four main producing areas of China, and similarity analysis was applied to evaluate the similarities between the fingerprints of samples and the standard fingerprint. Twenty three common peaks occurring in the fingerprint were unequivocally or tentatively identified by UHPLC-QTOF-MS/MS. Meanwhile, principal component analysis (PCA), supervised orthogonal partial least squares-discriminate analysis (OPLS-DA) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) were employed to classify 25 batches of PCS samples into four groups, which were highly consistent with the four geographical regions. Ten compounds were screened out as potential markers to distinguish the quality of PCS. Nine triterpene acids, including five compounds that played important roles in the clusters between different samples collected from the four collection locations, were simultaneously quantified by using the multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode of UHPLC-QqQ-MS/MS. The current strategy not only clearly expounded the correlation between quality and geographical origins of PCS, but also provided a fast, accurate and comprehensive qualitative and quantitative method for assessing the quality of PCS.

Antiepileptic activity of total triterpenes isolated from Poria cocos is mediated by suppression of aspartic and glutamic acids in the brain

CONTEXT

Triterpenes from Poria cocos Wolf (Polyporaceae) have been used to treat various diseases in traditional Chinese medicine. However, the antiepileptic effects and mechanism are not fully understood.

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this study is to investigate the antiepileptic properties of total triterpenes (TTP) from the whole P. cocos.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The ethanol extract TTP was identified by HPLC fingerprint analysis. Male ICR mice were gavaged (i.g.) with TTP (5, 20, 80 or 160 mg/kg) or reference drugs twice a day for 7 d. Antiepileptic activities of TTP were evaluated by maximal electroshock (MES)- and pentylenetetrazole (PTZ)-induced seizures in mice for 30 and 60 min, respectively. Locomotor activity and Rota-rod tests were performed for 60 min and 5 min, respectively. The levels of glutamic acid (Glu), aspartic acid (Asp), γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and glycine (Gly) in convulsive mice were estimated. The chronic epileptic model of Wistar rats was built to measure expressions of glutamate decarboxylase 65 (GAD65) and GABA_A in rat brain after TTP treatment.

RESULTS

The LC₅₀ of TTP (i.g.) was above 6 g/kg. TTP (5-160 mg/kg) protected mice against MES- and PTZ-induced convulsions at 65.0% and 62.5%, respectively, but have no effect on rota-rod treadmill; TTP (20-160 mg/kg) significantly reduced the locomotor activities, shortened the onset of pentobarbital sodium-induced sleep; TTP decreased Glu and Asp levels in convulsive mice, but increased the GAD65 and GABA_A expressions in chronic epileptic rats at doses usage.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

TTP extracted from P. cocos possessed potential antiepileptic properties and is a candidate for further antiepileptic drug development.

Screening and Analysis of the Potential Bioactive Components of Poria cocos (Schw.) Wolf by HPLC and HPLC-MS(n) with the Aid of Chemometrics

The aim of the present study was to establish a new method based on Similarity Analysis (SA), Cluster Analysis (CA) and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to determine the quality of different samples of Poria cocos (Schw.) Wolf obtained from Yunnan, Hubei, Guizhou, Fujian, Henan, Guangxi, Anhui and Sichuan in China. For this purpose 15 samples from the different habitats were analyzed by HPLC-PAD and HPLC-MS(n). Twenty-three compounds were detected by HPLC-MS(n), of which twenty compounds were tentatively identified by comparing their retention times and mass spectrometry data with that of reference compounds and reviewing the literature. The characteristic fragmentations were summarized. 3-epi-Dehydrotumulosic acid (F13), 3-oxo-16α,25-dihydroxylanosta-7,9(11),24(31)-trien-21-oic acid (F4), 3-oxo-6,16α-dihydroxylanosta-7,9(11),24(31)-trien-21-oic acid (F7) and dehydropachymic acid (F15) were deemed to be suitable marker compounds to distinguish between samples of different quality according to CA and PCA. This study provides helpful chemical information for further anti-tumor activity and active mechanism research on P. cocos. The results proved that fingerprint combined with a chemometric approach is a simple, rapid and effective method for the quality discrimination of P. cocos.

The antihyperlipidemic effect of Fu-Ling-Pi is associated with abnormal fatty acid metabolism as assessed by UPLC-HDMS-based lipidomics

The surface layer of Poria cocos (SLPC), a traditional Chinese medicine, has been commonly used for diuretic and antihyperlipidemia in Asia.