Tibetan Folk Research Articles

Separation and determination of flavone and xanthone glycosides in Tibetan folk medicinal species Swertia mussotii and S. franchetiana by capillary electrophoresis

The contents of five pharmacologically active flavone and xanthone glycosides, namely, swertianolin, swertisin, isoorientin, mangiferin, and 7-O-[α-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1 → 2)-β-D-xylopyranosyl]-1,8-dihydroxy-3-methoxyxanthone, extracted from Tibetan folk medicinal species Swertia mussotii and S. franchetiana were determined by capillary electrophoresis with diode-array detection. The separation of five components has been optimized with a capillary column with a total length of 48.5 cm and effective length of 40 cm (50 μm i.d). The influence of the running buffer, the sodium dodecyl sulfonate (SDS) concentration, organic modifier, etc. on the resolution was evaluated. The background electrolyte contained 30 mM borate buffer, 28 mM SDS, 1.0% (v/v) acetonitrile, and was adjusted to pH 9.0 with 0.1 M NaOH. A good baseline resolution was obtained for the separation of five components within 5 min with the working voltage of 24 kV and a column temperature of 25°C. The established method was rapid and reproducible for the separation and determination of five flavone and xanthone glycosides from the extracts of S. mussotii and franchetiana plant samples.

Comparison of the Antiinflammatory Activities of Three Medicinal Plants Known as “Meiduoluomi” in Tibetan Folk Medicine

Erigeron breviscapus (Vant.) Hand-mazz (EB), Erigeron multiradiatus (Lindl.) Benth (EM), and Aster brachytrichus Franch (AB), confused under the vernacular name "meiduoluomi" by native people and traditional healers, have been used for the treatment of meningitis, polyneuritis, hepatitis, adenolymphitis, and enteronitis in traditional Tibetan medicine. In this study, the antiinflammatory activity of methanol extracts of all three plants was investigated in the xylene-induced ear edema model, carrageenan-induced paw edema model, and cotton pellet-induced granuloma model. It was found that the methanolic extracts of both EB and EM had strong inhibitory effects on the acute phase of inflammation in carrageenan-induced paw edema in rats. On the other hand, the methanolic extract of EM showed stronger effects than those of EB in xylene-induced ear edema. In the chronic test, the methanolic extracts of EB and EM resulted in a significant reduction in granuloma weight in rats. In addition, myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity was strongly reduced in the EB-treated and EM-treated groups, which indicated that EB and EM can inhibit certain inflammatory modulator factors that cause neutrophil aggregation in inflamed tissue, e.g., nuclear factor-kappaB. However, the methanolic extracts of AB had no antiinflammatory effects in the tested models and MPO assay. The similar effects of EM and EB in tested models provided some scientific basis for the traditional usage of meiduoluomi in inflammatory disease. However, the results also suggest that further study is needed to investigate the antiinflammatory profile of AB and provide a scientific basis for the use of AB in inflammatory diseases.

Anti-inflammatory and free radical scavenging activities of ethanol extracts of three seeds used as “Bolengguazi”

The seeds of Herpetospermum pedunculosun (Ser.) C.B.Clarke. (HPD), Mormodica cochinchinensis (Lour.) Spreng. (MCC) and Mormodica charantia L. (MCR) share the same common name (“Bolengguazi”) in the Tibetan medicine. The anti-inflammatory activities of the three “Bolengguazi” were evaluated using egg album-induced paw edema and cotton-pellet granuloma tests. Among them, HPD is the most active one in both models. Results showed that oral administration of ethanol extract of HPD seed (200 and 400 mg/kg) significantly suppressed the development of egg albumin-induced paw edema ( P < 0.01). In the chronic test, the ethanol extract of HPD seed (200 and 400 mg/kg) showed significant reduction in granuloma weight of rats ( P < 0.05). The anti-inflammatory effect of the ethanol HPD seed was similar to that of indomethacin (10 mg/kg). Moreover, the free radical scavenging activities of “Bolengguazi” were investigated using the DPPH test. Only the ethanol extract of HPD seed showed a moderate free radical scavenging effect on DPPH (IC 50, 198.69 μg/ml) when compared with the positive control, V E, (IC 50, 44.91 μg/ml). The HPD seeds showed more significant anti-inflammatory activities in additional to higher free radical scavenging activities than that of the MCC and MCR seeds. The results of the present study provide a scientific basis to explain, in part, the popular use of HPD seed in Tibetan folk medicine as “Bolengguazi”. The present study also supports the claims by the traditional Tibetan medicine practitioners about the use of HPD seeds in inflammatory diseases, such as “Chiba”.

Separation and Determination of the Major Active Components in Tibetan Folk Medicinal Species Swertia franchetiana by HPLC with DAD

A sensitive and specific reversed‐phase high performance liquid chromatography (RP‐HPLC) method with diode array detection (DAD) was established for the quantitative determination of the nine active components, namely, swertiamarin (SWM, 1), mangiferin (MA, 2), gentipicroside (GE, 3), sweroside (SWO, 4), isoorientin (IS, 5), swertisin (SWS, 6), swertianolin (SWN, 7), 7‐O‐[α‐L‐rhamnopyranosyl‐ 1→2)‐β‐D‐xylopyranosyl]‐1,8‐dihydroxy‐3‐methoxyxanthone (RX, 8), and bellidifolin (BE, 9) used as the external standard, in Tibetan folk medicinal species Swertia franchetiana. Based on the baseline chromatographic separation of most components from the methanolic extract of Swertia franchetiana on a reversed‐phase Eclipse XDB‐C8 column with water‐acetonitrile‐formic acid as mobile phase, the nine components were identified by comparison with standard samples and qualified by using the external standard method with DAD at 254 nm. The correlation coefficients of all the calibration curves were found to be higher than 0.9980. The relative standard deviations (RSDs) of the peak areas and retention times for the nine standards were less than 2.07% and 2.86%, respectively.

Fingerprinting quality control of Qianghuo by high-performance liquid chromatography-photodiode array detection

A novel, simple and accurate fingerprint method was developed using high-performance liquid chromatography-photodiode array detection (HPLC-DAD) for the quality control of Qianghuo, a Tibetan folk and Chinese herbal medicine used as a diaphoretic, an antifebrile and an anodyne. For the first time, the feasibility and advantages of employing chromatographic fingerprint were investigated and demonstrated for the evaluation of Qianghuo by systematically comparing chromatograms of aqueous extracts with the professional analytical software recommended by State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA). Our results revealed that the chromatographic fingerprint combing similarity evaluation could efficiently identify and distinguish raw herbs of Qianghuo from different sources and different species. The effects on Notopterygium forbesii Boiss (Apiaceae) chromatographic fingerprints resulted from collecting locations, harvesting time were also examined.

Molecular Authentication of the Traditional Tibetan Medicinal Plant Swertia mussotii

Swertia mussotii is an important species in Tibetan folk medicine. However, it is quite expensive and frequently adulterated, so reliable methods for authentication of putative specimens and preparations of the species are needed to protect consumers and to support conservation measures. We show here that the chloroplast (cp) DNA RPL16 intron has limited utility for differentiating S. mussotii from closely related species, since the cpDNA RPL16 sequences are identical in S. mussotii and two other species of Swertia. However, the rDNA internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequences differ significantly between S. mussotii and all of 13 tested potential adulterants. Thus, the ITS region provides a robust molecular marker for differentiating the medicinal S. mussotii from related adulterants. Therefore, a pair of allele-specific diagnostic primers based on the divergent ITS region was designed to distinguish S. mussotii from the other species. Authentication by allele-specific diagnostic PCR using these primers is convenient, effective and both simpler and less time-consuming than sequencing the ITS region.

Variation of active constituents of an important Tibet folk medicine Swertia mussotii Franch. (Gentianaceae) between artificially cultivated and naturally distributed

Concentrations of seven phytochemical constituents (swertiamarin, mangiferin, swertisin, oleanolic acid, 1,5,8-trihydroxy-3-methoxyxanthone, 1,8-dihydroxy-3,7-dimethoxyxanthone and 1,8-dihydroxy-3,5-dimethoxyxanthone) of “ZangYinChen” ( Swertia mussotii, a herb used in Tibetan folk medicine) were determined and compared in plants collected from naturally distributed high-altitude populations and counterparts that had been artificially cultivated at low altitudes. Levels of mangiferin, the most abundant active compound in this herb, were significantly lower in cultivated samples and showed a negative correlation with altitude. The other constituents were neither positively nor negatively correlated with cultivation at low altitude. Concentrations of all of the constituents varied substantially with growth stage and were highest at the bud stage in the cultivars, but there were no distinct differences between flowering and fruiting stages in this respect.

Tibetan Folk Songs from Lhasa and Amdo

Tibetan Folk Songs from Lhasa and Amdo

Tibetan Folk and Minstrel Music

Tibetan Folk and Minstrel Music

Tibetan Folk Songs from Gyantse and Western Tibet

Tibetan Folk Songs from Gyantse and Western Tibet

The State of Research in Tibetan Folk Music

existence of secular songs in Tibet, some of them possibly folksongs, has been referred to in the works of Western writers since the year 1800. Captain Samuel Turner heard the mother of the then Tashi Lama sing to him very pleasing air, which she played at the same time upon the guittar, her husband also accompanying her on the flageolet (1800:308); the French Lazarist Fathers, RegisEvariste Huc and Joseph Gabet, between 1840 and 1842, heard children singing as they danced at the New Year Festival in Fhasa (1928: II, 75), while Sir Alexander Cunningham heard drinking songs sung at banquets in Ladak (1854:307), a country which had been separated from Tibet shortly before his visit there. None of these authors, however, has given any specimen of what he heard and none allows us any technical description. In his manual of 1879 Major Thomas H. Lewin truly says their folklore, songs and ballads are all unknown (1879). And seventy years later Giuseppi Tucci, introducing his collection of Tibetan folksongs from the district of Gyantse, could still write: The European literature on Tibetan folk song is rather scarce. I know only the few specimens which have been published either in translations or in the original text, and he then lists eight of the relevant sources (1949:7 and n.l). THE PUBLISHED SOURCES

Tibetan Folk Songs from Gyantse and Western Tibet

Tibetan Folk Songs from Gyantse and Western Tibet