Ephedrae Herba: A Review of Its Phytochemistry, Pharmacology, Clinical Application, and Alkaloid Toxicity

Ephedrae Herba (Ephedra), known as "MaHuang" in China, is the dried straw stem that is associated with the lung and urinary bladder meridians. At present, more than 60 species of Ephedra plants have been identified, which contain more than 100 compounds, including alkaloids, flavonoids, tannins, sugars, and organic phenolic acids. This herb has long been used to treat asthma, liver disease, skin disease, and other diseases, and has shown unique efficacy in the treatment of COVID-19 infection. Because alkaloids are the main components causing toxicity, the safety of Ephedra must be considered. However, the nonalkaloid components of Ephedra can be effectively used to replace ephedrine extracts to treat some diseases, and reasonable use can ensure the safety of Ephedra. We reviewed the phytochemistry, pharmacology, clinical application, and alkaloid toxicity of Ephedra, and describe prospects for its future development to facilitate the development of Ephedra.

Role of TRPV1 in respiratory disease and association with traditional Chinese medicine: A literature review

Transient receptor potential vanilloid type 1 (TRPV1), involved in multiple pathophysiological processes including inflammation, is a thermally activated, non-selective cation channel. It has been identified that TRPV1 is highly involved in some common respiratory diseases including allergic rhinitis, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and pulmonary infection by participating in neurogenic and immunogenic inflammation, sensitization, and oxidative stress. In recent years, the hypothesis of transient receptor potential (TRP) has been introduced in studies on the theory of five flavors and four properties of Chinese medicinal. However, the hypothesis is undetermined due to the multi-component and multi-target characteristics of Chinese medicinal. This study describes the relations between TRPV1 and four types of respiratory diseases based on the literature in recent five years. In the meantime, the therapeutic effect of Chinese medicinal by intervening TRPV1 was reviewed, in an attempt to provide certain evidence for future studies on the medicinal property-effect relationship, mechanism of drug action, the syndrome differentiation in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) for respiratory diseases and to help for new drug development.

Anti-obesity effects of galacto-oligosaccharides in obese rats

Galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS) are commonly used as prebiotic with a variety of known metabolic benefits; however, whether GOS plays a protective role in obesity remains unknown. Here, we demonstrate that GOS prevented obesity in a rat model of obesity induced by a high-fat diet. Our results showed that GOS effectively slowed weight gain in diet-induced obese rats without affecting energy intake. GOS significantly suppressed the hypertrophy and hyperplasia of white adipose tissue and markedly reduced the ratio of the fat/body. Consistently, GOS significantly improved serum total cholesterol, triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels, indicating the weight loss activity of GOS. Interestingly, GOS also significantly increased the expression levels of browning proteins, including uncoupling protein 1, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ coactivator 1α, and PR domain 16, in both white and brown adipose tissue. Furthermore, we found that GOS markedly increased the expression levels of liver X receptor α, peroxisome proliferation-activated receptor-α, low-density lipoprotein receptor, and cholesterol 7α-hydroxylase proteins in the liver of obese rats. Taken together, we concluded that GOS inhibits obesity by accelerating the browning of white fat cells and the thermogenesis of brown fat cells and that GOS improves host lipid homeostasis by promoting cholesterol catabolism.

Phytochemistry and pharmacology of genus Ephedra

The genus Ephedra of the Ephedraceae family contains more than 60 species of nonflowering seed plants distributed throughout Asia, America, Europe, and North Africa. These Ephedra species have medicinal, ecological, and economic value. This review aims to summarize the chemical constituents and pharmacological activities of the Ephedra species to unveil opportunities for future research. Comprehensive information on the Ephedra species was collected by electronic search (e.g., GoogleScholar, Pubmed, SciFinder, and Web of Science) and phytochemical books. The chemical compounds isolated from the Ephedra species include alkaloids, flavonoids, tannins, polysaccharides, and others. The in vitro and in vivo pharmacological studies on the crude extracts, fractions and few isolated compounds of Ephedra species showed anti-inflammatory, anticancer, antibacterial, antioxidant, hepatoprotective, anti-obesity, antiviral, and diuretic activities. After chemical and pharmacological profiling, current research is focused on the antibacterial and antifungal effects of the phenolic acid compounds, the immunosuppressive activity of the polysaccharides, and the antitumor activity of flavonoids.