Abstract
Oviductus ranae is an animal-based traditional Chinese material widely used as tonics in China for hundreds of years. Various bioactive components are present in OR including proteins, amino acids, steroids, fatty acids, phospholipids, nucleosides, vitamins, hydantoins, and mineral elements. These constituents exert a myriad of biological functions such as immunomodulatory, antioxidant, antifatigue, antiaging, estrogen-like, hepatoprotective, hypolipidemic, antiosteoporotic, antidepressant, antitumor, antitussive, expectorant, anti-inflammatory, and antiasthmatic activities. Unlike other traditional Chinese crude drugs recorded in Chinese Pharmacopoeia, OR is seldom prescribed as medicine but often consumed as nutraceuticals to optimize health. In this review, the traditional uses, bioactive constituents, biological functions, and safety properties of OR as functional foods in China were summarized and discussed. It is expected that this review will provide useful information for anyone who is interested in OR.
Highlights
Natural products (NPs) are substances derived from plants, animals, and microorganisms [1]
In a previous work [84], we investigated the preparation, amino acid composition, and in vitro and in vivo antioxidant activities of water-soluble proteins from OR (WPOR) and found that WPOR exert weaker in vitro radical-scavenging capacities to hydroxyl, superoxide anion, and DPPH as well as ferric-reducing power compared with vitamin C (VC) but show stronger antioxidant effects in an ethanol-induced oxidative stress mouse model
In rats with CCl4-induced liver fibrosis, intragastric administration of Oviductus ranae (OR) in doses of 1.5 and 3.0 g/kg body weight (BW) for 8 weeks remarkably reduced ALT, AST, ALP, GGT, Hyp, and MDA and elevated superoxide dismutase (SOD) and GSH-Px [112]. These results suggested that the hepatoprotective activities of OR may be related to its antioxidant activity, which was further confirmed by another investigation, where Zhang et al [114] observed that oral administration of OR in doses of 0.9, 4.5, and 9.0 g/kg BW for 28 days can significantly increase SOD and decrease MDA in the liver in high-intensity exercise training mice
Summary
Natural products (NPs) are substances derived from plants, animals, and microorganisms [1]. In addition to plant, animals and/or products derived from their organs are essential constituents in the preparation of many traditional medicines and tonics, especially for the prevention and healing of chronic diseases [6, 7], for example, the dried Agkistrodon Japonicae has been traditionally consumed in Japan as a tonic for relieving physical fatigue. Oviductus ranae (OR), the dried oviduct of mature female Rana dybowskii, known as Hamayou and Hashimayou, is a famous traditional animal-based medicine, which has been used in China for Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity over hundreds of years to treat or prevent various ailments including debilitation, night sweat, neurasthenia, insomnia, and climacteric syndrome [10, 11].
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