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Red jujube (Ziziphus jujuba Mill.), as a traditional Chinese medicine and edible plant, has a long history and extensive uses. Red jujubes are not only widely used in the food industry and traditional Chinese medicine preparations, but also have attracted widespread research interest due to their rich functional components and various pharmacological effects. This paper reviewed the main functional components of jujubes, including polysaccharides, triterpenoid saponins, organic acids and alkaloids, and discussed in detail the pharmacological effects of these components such as blood sugar-regulating, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-tumor effects. Furthermore, the paper also summarized the safety issues such as drug interactions and toxic side effects of jujubes, and prospected the future development direction of jujube research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Platycodin D (PD), a bioactive triterpenoid saponin isolated from Platycodi Radix (PR), possesses a vast range of biological activities. Although the pharmacological activities and pharmacokinetics of PD have been well demonstrated, information regarding the intestinal metabolisms of PD is very limited. In this study, human and rat fecal microflora were prepared and anaerobically incubated with PD at 37C for 48h, respectively. A highly sensitive and specific ultra performance liquid chromatography/quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-Q-TOF/MS) was developed for the analysis of PD and related metabolites in the reaction samples. A Liquid-liquid extraction method was used for sample pretreatment and the chromatographic separation was performed on a 1.7 m particle size Syncronis C column using gradient elution system. Finally, a total of seven metabolites were detected and tentatively identified, such as the demethylation metabolite (M1), deoxidation metabolites (M3, M7) and hydrolysis at the C-28 oligosaccharide metabolites (M5, M6), which were first discovered in this experiment. The results indicate that hydrolysis, demethylation, dehydroxylation, and acetylation were the major metabolic pathways of PD in vitro. Additionally, four bacterial strains from human feces including Enterococcus sp.41, Bacillus sp.46, Escherichia sp.49 A and Escherichia sp.64 were detected and further identified with 16S rRNA gene sequencing due to their relatively strong metabolic capacity toward PD. The present study provides important information about the metabolism of PD, which will help elucidate the impact of intestinal bacteria on this active component. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two new flavone glycosides were isolated from the seeds of Impatiens balsamina L. and their structures were determined as quercetin-3-O-[α-l-rhamnose-(1 → 2)-β-d-glucopyranosyl]-5-O-β-d-glucopyranoside (1), and quercetin-3-O-[(6'''-O-caffeoyl)-α-l-rhamnose-(1 → 2)-β-d-glucopyranosyl]-5-O-β-d-glucopyranoside (2) on the basis of various spectral and chemical studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new compound, quercetin-8-(2″-pyrrolidinone-5″-yl)-3′-O-β-D-glucopyranoside, with 11 known flavonoids, was isolated from the traditional Chinese herb Abelmoschus manihot. The structure was elucidated by spectral analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two new compounds, 5β-pregnane-2α,6α,20(S)-triol (1) and 8-hydroxyl-3-methoxyl-2(1H)-quinolone (2), were isolated fromScolopendra multidensNewport. Their structures were elucidated on the basis of spectroscopic methods including 1D and 2D NMR and HR-TOF-MS. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]