Abstract
Quality inconsistency of herbal medicine is an obstacle that limits the extensive use and study of traditional Chinese medicine. Differences in environmental conditions and processing methods of herbal medicine often result in varying clinical outcomes in patients. Standard chemical markers used for the quality control (QC) of herbal medicine are usually the most abundant and characteristic components, which may not be therapeutically relevant or cannot comprehensively reflect the biological quality of the herbs. In view of this, a novel QC method for better assessment of herbal medicine has been developed via bioactivities analysis. Immunological activities of Dictamni Cortex, a typical herbal medicine for the treatment of various inflammatory diseases, from different geographical locations in China, were evaluated. Upon in vitro treatment of their water and ethanol extracts, distinct patterns of inflammatory cytokines including tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interleukin (IL)-10, IL-6, IL-12p70, IL-1β, and chemokine CXCL8 were released from the lipopolysaccharides- and/or phytohaemagglutinin-stimulated human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). Thus, in addition to the commonly used morphological, chemical, or DNA markers, the novel high-throughput profiling of inflammatory cytokines and chemokines of PBMC upon treatment with herbal extracts could be an important reference to help for the quality control of herbal medicine in the future.
Highlights
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been used for thousands of years in clinical practice inChina
Our current study aims at elucidating the possibility of using immunological markers as supplementary parameters for the quality control (QC) of herbal medicine
Our results indicate that LPS and/or PHA-induced tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, IL-6, and CXCL8, the common biologically relevant immunological markers in inflammatory diseases, can be useful markers for the evaluation of the pharmacological quality of Dictamni Cortex and other anti-inflammatory herbal medicine
Summary
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been used for thousands of years in clinical practice in. They are gaining acceptance worldwide because they are readily accessible from the natural environment and affordable. Large-scale cultivation of herbal medicine has been widely adopted in China for meeting the increasing demands for TCM [1]. The uncontrolled quality of TCM has caused concerns over their therapeutic reliability and safety. Classic and the famous Chinese medicine practitioner Li Shizhen, environmental factors can seriously. Molecules 2019, 24, 2880 influence the nature and properties of herbal medicine [2].
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