Abstract
Fritillariae Cirrhosae Bulbus (known as chuanbeimu in Chinese, FCB) is a famous folk medicine which has been widely used to relieve cough and eliminate phlegm for thousands of years in China. The medicine originates from dried bulbs of six species of Fritillaria which are distributed in the temperate zone of the Northern Hemisphere. Increasing attention has been paid to FCB because of its excellent medicinal value such as being antitussive, expectorant, analgesic, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidative. During the past years, a large number of research studies have been conducted to investigate the phytochemistry, pharmacology, and pharmacokinetics of FCB. A range of compounds have been isolated and identified from FCB, including alkaloids, saponins, nucleosides, organic acids, terpenoids, and sterols. Among them, alkaloids as the main active ingredient have been illustrated to exert significant therapeutic effects on many diseases such as cancer, acute lung injury, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, Parkinson's disease, and diabetes. Due to the excellent medical value and low toxicity, FCB has a huge market all over the world and triggers a growing enthusiasm among researchers. However, there is still a lack of systematic review. Hence, in this work, we reviewed the FCB-based articles published in Sci Finder, Web of Science, PubMed, Google Scholar, CNKI, and other databases in the recent years. The traditional uses, sources, phytochemistry, pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, and toxicity of FCB were discussed in the review, which aims to provide a reference for further development and utilization of FCB.
Highlights
Fritillariae Cirrhosae Bulbus (FCB) is one of the best known Chinese herbal medicines used to treat respiratory disease and obtained from the Fritillaria species [1,2,3]
Wang et al pointed out that the alkaloids isolated from FCB, including imperialine, chuanbeinone, peimine, and peiminine (1.5, 3.0 mg/kg for 0.5 h), could inhibit the xylene-induced mice ear edema in a dose-dependent manner [59]
Another study has indicated that treatment with the five isosteroid alkaloids derived from FCB (including imperialine, peiminine, delavine, peimisine (0–40 μM for 24 h), and peimine (0–10 μM for 24 h)) could inhibit the productions of nitric oxide (NO), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), IL-1β, and IL-6 and suppress the activation of ERK1/2, p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), and Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK)/stress-activated protein kinase (SAPK) in LPS-induced RAW264.7 macrophages [70] (Figure 10)
Summary
Fritillariae Cirrhosae Bulbus (FCB) is one of the best known Chinese herbal medicines used to treat respiratory disease and obtained from the Fritillaria species [1,2,3]. According to the Chinese pharmacopoeia (2015), there are six species of the Fritillaria genus used as the botanical origins of FCB, including Fritillaria cirrhosa D. E six Fritillaria plants are characterized by poor growth and strict environmental requirements. They are mainly distributed between the altitudes of 3000 and 5000 m in most parts of Tibet, Northwest Sichuan, Northern Yunnan, and Southeastern Qinghai [5, 6]. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine them, steroidal alkaloids have been regarded as the indicator agent for evaluating the quality of FCB [10]. We provided a systematic review on the traditional uses, sources, phytochemistry, pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, and toxicity of FCB in this work, to provide a reference for further development and utilization of FCB
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