Traditional Chinese Medicine Resources Research Articles

Tanshinones, Critical Pharmacological Components in Salvia miltiorrhiza.

Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge, a member of the Lamiaceae family, is valued in traditional Chinese Medicine. Its dried root (named Danshen) has been used for hundreds of years, primarily for the treatment of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. Tanshinones are the main active ingredients in S. miltiorrhiza and exhibit significant pharmacological activities, such as antioxidant activity, anti-inflammatory activity, cardiovascular effects, and antitumor activity. Danshen dripping pill of Tianshili is an effective drug widely used in the clinical treatment of cardiovascular diseases. With the increasing demand for clinical drugs, the traditional method for extracting and separating tanshinones from medicinal plants is insufficient. Therefore, in combination with synthetic biological methods and strategies, it is necessary to analyze the biosynthetic pathway of tanshinones and construct high-yield functional bacteria to obtain tanshinones. Moreover, the biosynthesis of tanshinones has been studied for more than two decades but remains to be completely elucidated. This review will systematically present the composition, extraction and separation, pharmacological activities and biosynthesis of tanshinones from S. miltiorrhiza, with the intent to provide references for studies on other terpenoid bioactive components of traditional Chinese medicines and to provide new research strategies for the sustainable development of traditional Chinese medicine resources.

Application of phylogenomics in Chinese medicine resources

China is rich in the diversified Chinese medicine resources and is notable for the wide and long-term applications of Chinese medicine. However,the lack of genomic information on medicinal taxa leads to problems in relation to resource conservation and the downstream application of traditional Chinese medicine resources,which restricts the modernization process of traditional Chinese medicine. Molecular phylogenetics is an important tool to understand the origin and evolution of the earth's biodiversity and promote the conservation and use of medicinal taxa. With the development of sequencing technology,the combination of genomic data extends the traditional molecular phylogenetics to the research level of phylogenomics,making it more powerfully applied to all aspects of biological research. Undoubtedly,carrying out phylogenomic research on Chinese medicine species will greatly promote their resources conservation,molecular evaluation and identification,and the exploration and utilization of natural pharmacodynamic components,promoting the modernization of traditional Chinese medicine. This article starts with a brief introduction of the developing history and basic research methods of phylogenomics,and then reviews the current research progress in phylogenomics related to traditional Chinese medicine resources. Finally,it discusses the problems existing in the current research and the next direction of phylogenomics research in medicinal taxa. The article will hopefully provide a reference for relevant researches in future.

Investigation and application of Dendrobium resources in Qinba Mountains with a discussion on industrial poverty alleviation model

The Dendrobium species are rare and endangered medicinal plants, and it is difficult to investigate their wild resources with conventional methods because of typical epiphytic herbaceous. We explored Dendrobium resources(include culture resource) of Qinba Mountains and the boundary Mountain area in Hubei, Chongqing using the methods of literatures and field investigation, and found that the cultural base of Dendrobium were profound in Qinba Mountains region. Furthermore, its germplasm resources of Dendrobium were established for the first time in Wanzhou Luotian town. In case the advantages of local rock resources and poverty alleviation demand, we have actively carried out the cultivating mode of Dendrobium which grow on rock, and the poverty alleviation model of local characteristic Dendrobium industry were established preliminarily. Our application case can provide reference for the mining and transformation of traditional Chinese medicine resources census results.

Analysis of Medicinal Value of Gardenia Flowers

Purpose: To explore the chemical composition, medicinal value and edible value of gardenia flowers, and make rational use of traditional Chinese medicine resources. Methods: Through consulting the literature and relevant information to understand the chemical composition, medicinal and edible value of gardenia flowers, and summarized, actively respond to the Modernization of Traditional Chinese Medicine Research focus on the special call, the development of traditional Chinese medicine resources. Results: Gardenia flowers contain volatile oil, gardenia yellow pigment, amino acids, vitamins and trace elements, which have high medicinal and edible value. it should be further developed to lay the foundation for the development and clinical use of traditional Chinese medicine. Conclusion: Gardenia flowers is a kind of medicinal and edible plants, the analysis of gardenia flowers, fully embodies the recycling of traditional Chinese medicine Non - Medicinal parts, the future should be in-depth study on its pharmacology and clinical aspects, give full play to the application value of gardenia flowers.

Analysis of medicinal resources diversity of 33 pilots (districts) in Guizhou province

This study is based on the data analysis of medicinal plant resources and diversity collected from the fourth Chinese traditional medicine resource survey( pilot). Through the analysis of relevant data from 33 census pioneer plots in Guizhou province( area),a total of 265 families,1 432 genera and 5 296 species of medicinal resources were reported,including algae,fungi,lichens,mosses,a total of 43 genera and 35 families,57,48 families,120 genera and 453 species of ferns,gymnosperms 11 families,22 genera and 61 species,167 families,1 243 genera and 4 721 species of angiosperms,4 genera and 4 families four medicinal animals.Compared with the data related to the third survey of traditional Chinese medicine resources,the number of ferns,gymnosperms and angiosperms in the fourth survey has increased far more than that of the third survey. From the regional distribution of medicinal resources,the composition of the genus,the type of life,and the location of the medicine,the richness of the medicinal plant resources in Guizhou province is not only reflected in many types,but also in the variety of medicinal resources. These studies provide a scientific basis for vigorously developing the Chinese herbal medicine industry and the sustainably using medicinal plant resources in Guizhou province.

Application of metabolomics and related technologies in research and development field of traditional Chinese medicine

Internal environment of metabolism of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is a dynamic process, which is in line with the "holistic-dynamic-comprehensive-analytic" characteristics of metabonomics, therefore metabonomics have a unique advantage to reveal the metabolic pattern of TCM. The application of metabonomics in TCM has great practical significance in understanding the pharmacodynamic/toxic effect material basis, mechanisms and guiding for determination of dosage and treatment course; At the same time, the scientific compatibility of TCM prescription, the germplasm resources of TCM and the preclinical safety/toxicity can be widely researched. At present, metabolomics has become a leading technology in many industries and fields including the research and development of TCM. The core of metabolomics is analytical technology, because comprehensive metabolite profiles or accurate identification of known metabolites can be obtained from complex biological samples only by appropriate analytical techniques. At the same time, a series of bioinformatics/chemical informatics/stoichiometry methods are needed to process the data, so as to obtain the potential law and information in the mass data. In this paper, the concept of metabolomics, relevant analytical techniques, data processing methods and applications were explained and analyzed clearly. In addition, the core problems and countermeasures of metabolomics were summarized, and the future development of metabolomics was prospected as well.

Generalized science of Chinese material medica-from preventive treatment of disease to Chinese medicine health industry

Based on the systematic summary of the results of the fourth general survey of traditional Chinese medicine resources, the cultivation of large varieties of Chinese material medica and the latest research on health industrial development, the novel concepts and scientific connotations of generalized science of Chinese material medica are put forward, and the basic ideas and methods of a new Chinese medicine academic system, the cultivation system of large varieties of Chinese medicinal materials and the application system of the large health industry are constructed. This kind of generalized science of Chinese material medica, rooted in the traditional Chinese culture and the theory of "preventive treatment of disease", can avoid the narrow prospect induced by the increasing specialization and refinement of knowledge of science of Chinese material medica. It will play an important role in the modernization, industrialization, internationalization of traditional Chinese medicine.

Analysis of the Application Value of Peony Flower

Objective: To explore the medicinal and edible value of peony flower, and to make rational use of traditional Chinese medicine resources. Method: To understand the chemical composition, pharmacological action and edible value of the peony flower by consulting the literature and related information, and summarize and analyze, actively responding to the call of “Modernization of traditional Chinese medicine”. Result: The value of peony flowers is not only appreciated, but also has high medicinal and edible value. Therefore, the value of peony flowers should be further developed to lay a solid foundation for the development of traditional Chinese medicine and the rational use of medicines in clinical practice. Conclusion: Analysis of the application value of peony flower fully reflects the circular utilization of Chinese medicinal herbs”non medicinal parts”, and provides references for the development of Chinese medicine and the rational application of traditional Chinese medicine resources, so as to give full play to the application value of peony flower.

Ferroptosis pathway and its intervention regulated by Chinese materia medica

Ferroptosis is a new form of regulated cell death which is different from apoptosis, necrosis and autophagy, and results from iron-dependent lipidperoxide accumulation. Now, it is found that ferroptosis is involved in multiple physiological and pathological processes, such as cancer, arteriosclerosis, neurodegenerative diseases, diabetes, antiviral immune response, acute renal failure, hepatic and heart ischemia/reperfusion injury. On the one hand, it could be found the appropriate drugs to promote ferroptosis to clear cancer cells and virus infected cells, etc. On the other hand, we could inhibit ferroptosis to protect healthy cells. China has a wealth of traditional Chinese medicine resources. Chinese medicine contains a variety of active ingredients that regulate ferroptosis. Here, this paper reported the research of ferroptosis pathway, targets of its inducers and inhibitors that have been discovered, and the regulatory effects of the discovered Chinese herbs and its active ingredients on ferroptosis to help clinical and scientific research.

Single-Class Data Descriptors for Mapping Panax notoginseng through P-Learning

Machine learning-based remote-sensing techniques have been widely used for the production of specific land cover maps at a fine scale. P-learning is a collection of machine learning techniques for training the class descriptors on the positive samples only. Panax notoginseng is a rare medicinal plant, which also has been a highly regarded traditional Chinese medicine resource in China for hundreds of years. Until now, Panax notoginseng has scarcely been observed and monitored from space. Remote sensing of natural resources provides us new insights into the resource inventory of Chinese materia medica resources, particularly of Panax notoginseng. Generally, land-cover mapping involves focusing on a number of landscape classes. However, sometimes a subset or one of the classes will be the only part of interest. In term of this study, the Panax notoginseng field is the right unit class. Such a situation makes single-class data descriptors (SCDDs) especially significant for specific land-cover interpretation. In this paper, we delineated the application such that a stack of SCDDs were trained for remote-sensing mapping of Panax notoginseng fields through P-learning. We employed and compared SCDDs, i.e., the simple Gaussian target distribution, the robust Gaussian target distribution, the minimum covariance determinant Gaussian, the mixture of Gaussian, the auto-encoder neural network, the k-means clustering, the self-organizing map, the minimum spanning tree, the k-nearest neighbor, the incremental support vector data description, the Parzen density estimator, and the principal component analysis; as well as three ensemble classifiers, i.e., the mean, median, and voting combiners. Experiments demonstrate that most SCDDs could achieve promising classification performance. Furthermore, this work utilized a set of the elaborate samples manually collected at a pixel-level by experts, which was intended to be a benchmark dataset for the future work. The measuring performance of SCDDs gives us challenging insights to define the selection criteria and scoring proof for choosing a fine SCDD in mapping a specific landscape class. With the increment of remotely sensed satellite data of the study area, the spatial distribution of Panax notoginseng could be continuously derived in the local area on the basis of SCDDs.

Background and overall design of Chinese medicine resources assessment

This paper comprehensively analyses the background and meaning of The Technological Guiding Principle for Assessment of Chinese Medicine Resources enacted by the former CFDA ( China Food and Drug Administration), moreover, it also points out that the Chinese medicine resources assessment with the purpose of guaranteeing the sustainable supplying capacity of Chinese medicine resources is the premise of new drug development; the Chinese medicine resources assessment which takes quality guarantee as the core is a significant action to promote the fixing of place of origin and quality-management antedisplacement for the traditional Chinese medicine industry; in this regard, the Chinese medicine resources assessment which aims at realizing the whole-process traceability is the key to building the high-quality modern traditional Chinese medicine brand. The Chinese medicine resources assessment which takes the classical prescription as the entry point is the embodiment of the protection of traditional Chinese medicine resources and international vision of regulation, which aims at clarifying the thinking for the relevant enterprises to carry out the Chinese medicine resources assessment. Base on the general thinking of ensuring that the "total amount of Chinese medicine resources is fixed and the supply is guaranteed", this paper clarifies two methods of Chinese medicine resources assessment: "family property assessment" of Chinese medicine resources based on "fixed total amount", "supply and demand balance assessment" of Chinese medicine resources based on "supply guarantee". In this regard, the basic strategy of "supply and demand balance assessment" of Chinese medicine resources based on "guaranteed supply" is put forward and it is believed that the resources assessment will lead to the significant adjustment of traditional Chinese medicinal materials production. It becomes the only way for the development of various Chinese medicine production enterprises to realize the comprehensive improvement of Chinese medicine quality, brand construction, the establishment of preferential price mechanism.

The study of crude drugs producing regions, genuine producing regions and its distribution in Bencao Tujing

Bencao Tujing (Illustrated Classic of Materia Medica)《》 is one of the famous Chinese herbalism works in the Song Dynasty. This book contains a total of 814 kinds of medicinal herbs, recorded a lot of crude drugs and the producing regions information. The records of crude drugs can be divided into two parts: the text and the attached drawings.So we carries on the statistics, the comparison and the analysis to the crude drugs producing regions and the genuine producing regions two aspects.The results show that there are 537 producing regions in the text, of which the specific producing regions about 3/4, generally referred producing regions only about 1/4. There are 90 genuine producing regions.About 80% of the text has medicinal producing regions records. The producing regions, genuine producing regions and the producing regions of attached drawings showed high consistency, has a relatively high preciseness and scientific reference significance.The distribution of the producing regions of crude drugs in the book reflects the utilization of medicinal resources in the Song Dynasty is unbalanced. The patterns of the utilization of medicinal resources of the Central Plains cultural area and border area are different from each other.It also has certain reference significance to the exploitation and utilization of the traditional Chinese medicine resources.In addition, the information about the producing regions of these medicinal herbs, especially the genuine producing regions, provides valuable historical experience for the study and utilization of traditional Chinese medicine resources.

Discussion on exploitation of foreign traditional chinese medicine resources based on "the Belt and Road"

At the beginning of the ancient "Silk Road", traditional Chinese medicine resources (TCM resources) have long been integrated into it, and it was once the "important part" of the ancient "Silk Road" in Chinese history, benefited from this, the political connections was strengthened, the economic and trade was developed, and Chinese medicine culture was spread. Before Qing Dynasty, people took out the "silk" and brought back "herbs" on the "Silk Road", which enriched China's medicinal resources. While in the later Qing Dynasty and the period of the Republic of China, more scientific and technological methods were brought back from abroad, and this in turn enriched the medical research methods. With more than 2 000 years' development, China's boundaries have changed countless times, therefore the word "Foreign" has different meanings in different historical periods. The import, development and utilization of foreign TCM resources is different in different historical periods, at present, with the continuous enhancement of China's comprehensiv national strength，especially the "Belt And Road" strategy, the communication and import of TCM resources with countries that participating in the "Belt and Road" initiativ became much easier. In order to actively respond to the "Belt and Road" initiative promote the development and utilization of foreign medicinal resources; serve people from the countries participating in the "Belt and Road" initiative we sorted out the foreign TCM resources from different periods in ancient and modern China, and based on this, we proposed the strategy of import of foreign TCM resources under the new situation, those are: "three levels, four steps, one support and one key". And "three levels" refers to intelligence collection level, field investigation level, scientific research level, "Four steps" refers to the original identification research, safety evaluation research, functional positioning research and medicinal properties research; "One support" refers to relying on overseas Chinese or Chinese enterprises with working foundation and network resources, "One key" refers to the protection of the intellectual property rights of foreign TCM resources at the policy level and to mobilize the initiative of all parties.

Species diversity of ex-situ cultivated Chinese medicinal plants

Ex-situ conservation is an important means to protect biological genetic resources. Resource protection has received more and more attention with the continuous improvement of the comprehensive utilization of traditional Chinese medicine resources. In this paper, the research and compilation of the species list of ex-situ cultivated medicinal plants in 12 Chinese Academy of Sciences botanic gardens and 19 specialized medicinal botanic gardens in China were carried out. Based on the Species 2000(2017) and other classification databases, species diversity of medicinal plants ex-situ cultivated in these botanical gardens were analyzed. The study found that there were 16 351 higher plant species in our country, belonging to 276 families and 1 936 genera. Of these, 6 949 specieswere medicinal plants, accounting for 50.4% of the total medicinal plants. There were 1 280 medicinal plants were in threatened status, accounting for 19.6% of all threatened species in the Chinese Biodiversity Red List, with ex-situ cultivated proportion of 59.5%. And 3 988 medicinal plants were Chinese endemic species, accounting for 22.5% of all Chinese endemic species, with ex-situ cultivated proportion of 53.3%. This article has reference significance for the management and protection of medicinal plant resources.

Application of image recognition technology in census of national traditional Chinese medicine resources

With the development of computer and image processing technology, image recognition technology has been applied to the national medicine resources census work at all stages.Among them: ①In the preparatory work, in order to establish a unified library of traditional Chinese medicine resources, using text recognition technology based on paper materials, be the assistant in the digitalization of various categories related to Chinese medicine resources; to determine the representative area and plots of the survey from each census team, based on the satellite remote sensing image and vegetation map and other basic data, using remote sensing image classification and other technical methods to assist in determining the key investigation area. ②In the process of field investigation, to obtain the planting area of Chinese herbal medicine was accurately, we use the decision tree model, spectral feature and object-oriented method were used to assist the regional identification and area estimation of Chinese medicinal materials.③In the process of finishing in the industry, in order to be able to relatively accurately determine the type of Chinese medicine resources in the region, based on the individual photos of the plant, the specimens and the name of the use of image recognition techniques, to assist the statistical summary of the types of traditional Chinese medicine resources. ④In the application of the results of transformation, based on the pharmaceutical resources and individual samples of medicinal herbs, the development of Chinese medicine resources to identify APP and authentic herbs 3D display system, assisted the identification of Chinese medicine resources and herbs identification characteristics. The introduction of image recognition technology in the census of Chinese medicine resources, assisting census personnel to carry out related work, not only can reduce the workload of the artificial, improve work efficiency, but also improve the census results of information technology and sharing application ability. With the deepening of the work of Chinese medicine resources census, image recognition technology in the relevant work will also play its unique role.

Information work of national census of traditional Chinese medicine resources

In order to promote the protection, development and rational utilization on traditional Chinese medicine resources (TCM resoueces), the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine is organizing and implementing the fourth national survey on TCM resources. Informatization is the core for this survey and is also one of the main innovative points which transcend the previous three surveys. The extensive application on informatization technology has not only improved the work efficiency of the survey, but also expanded the new development directions of TCM resources research. In order to give full play to the leading role of informatization on leading the innovation in the survey, the survey office organized relevant researchers to sort out the relevant information during the pilot work and wrote a series of articles to form a special issue of informationization work on TCM resources. It demonstrated the staged achievements of informatization in the survey from 5 aspects which are including the overall progress of the survey, the collection and compilation of the core indicators, the development of the database software systems, the national planning and implementation supported by big data and the study of single species. During the pilot phase, the survey data was collected and gathered by using the modern technology, the demonstration applications was developed based on the data information which is serving the relevant organizational administration and scientific research on TCM resources, which injected a new impetus to the healthy and sustainable development of traditional Chinese medicine.

Brief introduction to progress of national census of Chinese medicine resources (pilot)

Since the beginning of 2011, with the strong support of the Ministry of Finance, the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine has organized the pilot work on the census of traditional Chinese medicine resources (hereinafter referred to as the "pilot work"). At all levels of Chinese medicine management departments under the joint efforts of the pilot work has achieved initial results. For the fourth national comprehensive implementation of traditional Chinese medicine resources, the technical methods have been optimized, the working teams have been professionally trained, and the experiences are accumulated. All of these laid a solid foundation for the work. As of August 2017, through the "National Resources Survey Information Management System". The initial summary of the Chinese medicine resourcesdisplayed more than 200 million collected data, more than 500 million photos, and more than 20 million copies of dried specimens and other physical materials.Furthermore more than 40 species of new species were found by the participant workers participate in the relevant Chinese medicine resources survey. During the pilot work, a central platformhas initially formed, 28 provincial-level traditional Chinese medicine raw material quality monitoring technical service center, 66 county-level monitoring stations of Chinese medicine resources dynamic monitoring information and technical service system were established.The information monitoring services of 190 kinds of Chinese herbal medicine prices, circulation and planting area of six major categories of, Chinese herbal medicine quality, field management and other 10 categories of technical services were launched. In the 20 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities), the construction of 28 Chinese herbal medicine seed breeding base were arranged, nearly 160 kinds of Chinese herbal medicine seed breeding production were carried out. And in Hainan and Sichuan province, two Chinese herbal medicine germplasm resources bases were established, preserve the germplasm resources collected in traditional Chinese medicine resources census work were preserved.

Analysis on difference of richness of traditional Chinese medicine resources in Chongqing based on grid technology

After the end of the national and local medicine resources census work, a large number of Chinese medicine resources and distribution of data will be summarized. The species richness between the regions is a valid indicator for objective reflection of inter-regional resources of Chinese medicine. Due to the large difference in the size of the county area, the assessment of the intercropping of the resources of the traditional Chinese medicine by the county as a statistical unit will lead to the deviation of the regional abundance statistics. Based on the rule grid or grid statistical methods, the size of the statistical unit due to different can be reduced, the differences in the richness of traditional Chinese medicine resources are caused. Taking Chongqing as an example, based on the existing survey data, the difference of richness of traditional Chinese medicine resources under different grid scale were compared and analyzed. The results showed that the 30 km grid could be selected and the richness of Chinese medicine resources in Chongqing could reflect the objective situation of intercropping resources richness in traditional Chinese medicine better.

Location information acquisition and sharing application design in national census of Chinese medicine resources

In literature, there are many information on the distribution of Chinese herbal medicine. Limited by the technical methods, the origin of Chinese herbal medicine or distribution of information in ancient literature were described roughly. It is one of the main objectives of the national census of Chinese medicine resources, which is the background information of the types and distribution of Chinese medicine resources in the region. According to the national Chinese medicine resource census technical specifications and pilot work experience, census team with "3S" technology, computer network technology, digital camera technology and other modern technology methods, can effectively collect the location information of traditional Chinese medicine resources. Detailed and specific location information, such as regional differences in resource endowment and similarity, biological characteristics and spatial distribution, the Chinese medicine resource census data access to the accuracy and objectivity evaluation work, provide technical support and data support. With the support of spatial information technology, based on location information, statistical summary and sharing of multi-source census data can be realized. The integration of traditional Chinese medicine resources and related basic data can be a spatial integration, aggregation and management of massive data, which can help for the scientific rules data mining of traditional Chinese medicine resources from the overall level and fully reveal its scientific connotation.

Study on extraction method of Panax notoginseng plots in Wenshan of Yunnan province based on decision tree model

The herbs used as the material for traditional Chinese medicine are always planted in the mountainous area where the natural environment is suitable. As the mountain terrain is complex and the distribution of planting plots is scattered, the traditional survey method is difficult to obtain accurate planting area. It is of great significance to provide decision support for the conservation and utilization of traditional Chinese medicine resources by studying the method of extraction of Chinese herbal medicine planting area based on remote sensing and realizing the dynamic monitoring and reserve estimation of Chinese herbal medicines. In this paper, taking the Panax notoginseng plots in Wenshan prefecture of Yunnan province as an example, the China-made GF-1multispectral remote sensing images with a 16 m×16 m resolution were obtained. Then, the time series that can reflect the difference of spectrum of P. notoginseng shed and the background objects were selected to the maximum extent, and the decision tree model of extraction the of P. notoginseng plots was constructed according to the spectral characteristics of the surface features. The results showed that the remote sensing classification method based on the decision tree model could extract P. notoginseng plots in the study area effectively. The method can provide technical support for extraction of P. notoginseng plots at county level.