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Objective: To study the immunological regulation and treatment of Brucea javanica and Fructus Psoraleae, traditional Chinese medicine, on rats with Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP)., Methods: Rats were injected subcutaneously by dexamethasone. When the rats got Pc infected, they were divided into two groups: rats in one group were treated with the mixture of Brucea javanica and Fructus Psoraleae and another group was used as infected control. Control with normal rats was also established. Observations were made on the number of cysts in lungs and the changes of CD4+ T cells, CD8+ T cells and TNF-alpha in the serum to demonstrate the immunological regulation and killing effect of the medicine on cysts in the infected rats., Results: The body weight of the rats treated with Brucea javanica and Fructus Psoraleae increased considerably than that of immunosuppressed rats and the normal control. The damaged lung got improved and repaired, and a significant cyst reduction was shown in the treated group. The CD4+ T cells, CD8+ T cells and level of TNF-alpha in serum also increased in the treated group significantly., Conclusion: The mixture of Brucea javanica and fructus psoraleae plays an immunological regulation on rats with Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia and shows certain killing effect on the cysts.

Mung bean (Phaseolus radiatus Linn.) and garden pea (Pisum satium Linn.), which were stressed 4 days under a low temperature of 10 degrees C, were used as materials to study the cold tolerance of plant with different resistance. On the 2nd and 3rd day under 10 degrees C stress, both the malondialdehyde (MDA) content and the superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and peroxidase (POD) activities increased significantly in hypocotylar cells of mung bean, so did SOD activity in garden pea, but other physiological indexes in garden pea were not different from the non-treatment groups (Figs. 1-5). In hypocotylar cells of mung bean, SOD activity always maintain at the highest level in a period of time,and so does POD activity (Figs. 3, 4). Ultrastructural results after stress indicated as follows: (1) Plastids in hypocotylar cells of mung bean accumulated much starch (Plate I-6), whereas the form of plastids in hypocotylar cells of garden pea changed maskedly to become dumb-bell-shaped, round or irregular, with the last one being the most common form (Plate I-8, 12); (2) In both mung bean and garden pea, central vacuole was divided into small vacuoles (Plate I-4, 10), and the number of mitochondria increased and became aggregated (Plate I-3, 11, 12). Judging from the activities of protective enzymes and ultrastructures, 10 degrees C low temperature caused non-lethal, temporary injuries to hypocotyls ultrastructures in mung bean, but no visible injury at all, and even improved its cold tolerance to a certain degree in garden pea.

A sequential injection spectophotometric method for the determination of sulfur dioxide by decolorizing malachite green in an alkali medium is studied; the decreasing in color is proportional to the amount of sulfur dioxide. The loading sequence, the concentration of reagents, the amount of sample and the flow of reagent rate are optimized by univariate method. With sequential injection sample introducing, the volumes of sample and reagent are reduced greatly and the speed of determination is increased apparently, a throughput of 60 samples/h can be achieved. A liner calibration curve was obtained in range of 0.5-4.0 microg x mL(-1). The determination limit is 0.15 microg x mL(-1), the RSD and the recovery are 1.5% and 94%-108% respectively.