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Hepatic steatosis, characterized by excessive lipid accumulation in the liver, can be ameliorated by autophagy activation. Polygoni Cuspidati rhizome et Radix (PCRR), traditionally used to treat atherosclerosis, hepatitis, and gallstones, has recently demonstrated anti-steatotic effects in the liver. However, the active compounds and underlying mechanisms remain unclear. This study investigated whether PCRR water extract improves steatosis by modulating hepatic autophagic flux. We found that PCRR water extract promoted autophagic flux, enhanced lysosomal biogenesis, and alleviated lipid accumulation in the liver cell lines as well as in the livers of rats with steatosis. Mechanistically, PCRR water extract inhibited mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) activity, leading to dephosphorylation and subsequent nuclear translocation of transcription factor EB (TFEB), a key regulator of lipophagy. TFEB knockdown attenuated PCRR-mediated lipophagy promotion in the liver cell lines. Furthermore, chloroquine (CQ)-mediated autophagy blockage abrogated the therapeutic effect of PCRR against hepatic steatosis in high-fat diet (HFD)-fed rats. These findings suggest that PCRR water extract acts as a novel autophagy enhancer and holds therapeutic potential for hepatic steatosis., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Sporopollenin is a natural biological macromolecule consisting of highly cross-linked carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms, with a highly porous structure and multifunctional groups. In this work, a novel surface molecularly imprinted polymer based on magnetically aminated cattail sporopollenin (MACSp-SMIP) was prepared for the specific and efficient adsorption of resveratrol, with the aim of purifying resveratrol from Polygonum cuspidatum extracts. MACSp-SMIP was found to have a porous structure covered with the multi-layered sponge-like imprinted polymers. MACSp-SMIP had a high adsorption capacity for resveratrol (65.77 mg·g -1 ) and excellent selectivity (imprinting factor 5.64). The adsorption of resveratrol by MACSp-SMIP was a homogeneous diffusion dominated by chemical adsorption with three stages of external diffusion, internal diffusion, and micropore diffusion. MACSp-SMIP was used as an adsorbent in molecularly imprinted solid-phase extraction for the purification of resveratrol from P. cuspidatum extracts, achieving a resveratrol recovery of 94.33 % and a purity of 76.67 % in the final products. MACSp-SMIP maintained a satisfactory recovery of resveratrol (88.18 %) after six cycles. Overall, this work developed a promising biological macromolecule-based adsorbent MACSp-SMIP for the specific and efficient adsorption of resveratrol, and also provided an efficient and simple approach for the selective purification of resveratrol from P. cuspidatum extracts for food/nutraceutical applications., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Hyperlipidemia is a major risk factor and pathological basis for cardiovascular diseases. Polygonum cuspidatum (HZ), a famous traditional Chinese medicine, is frequently used to treat hyperlipidemia. However, little is known about its underlying mechanism. Herein, an integrated approach combining multiplatform-based metabonomics and network analysis was adopted to elucidate the ameliorative mechanism of HZ on hyperlipidemia. The global metabolomic characters of HZ on hyperlipidemia were investigated by GC-MS and LC-MS based metabonomics. Significant metabonomic alterations were observed in hyperlipidemic group, which could be restored by HZ supplementation. Furthermore, the drug-ingredients-target-metabolic pathway network was constructed, and the result indicated that HZ exhibited hypolipidemic efficacy through resveratrol, polydatin, torachrysone-8-O-β-D-(6'-oxayl)-glucoside, physciondiglucoside, (+)-catechin, β-sitosterol, quercetin, luteolin and physovenine acting on phospholipase A2, unspecific monooxygenase, arachidonate 15-lipoxygenase, aromatic-L-amino-acid decarboxylase, alcohol dehydrogenase and triacylglycerol lipase. In conclusion, this study explored potential mechanism of HZ on hyperlipidemia with the aid of the integrated approach combining multiplatform-based metabonomics and network analysis, which might provide a theoretical basis for the clinical application of HZ., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

A methodology based on off-line multidimensional thin-layer chromatography was developed for isolation of several secondary metabolites from bark of Japanese knotweed (Fallopia japonica Houtt.) rhizomes. Successive fractionation steps using PLC silica gel and HPTLC silica gel or HPTLC cellulose plates in combination with various developing solvents enabled isolation of (+)-catechin, (-)-epicatechin, (-)-epicatechin gallate, procyanidin B1, procyanidin B2, procyanidin B3, proanthocyanidin B dimer gallate, emodin, emodin-8-O-glucoside and emodin-8-O-malonyl-glucoside. Their identity was confirmed by HPTLC, HPTLC-MS n and for most of them also by 1 H NMR and 2D NMR analyses. To the best of our knowledge emodin-8-O-malonyl-glucoside, procyanidins B1 and B2 were for the first time isolated from this plant material. HPTLC and HPTLC-MS n analyses were also performed as support of fractionation/isolation process, leading to first detection of some compounds in bark of Japanese knotweed rhizomes and Japanese knotweed rhizomes in general: procyanidins B1 and B2, methyl derivatives of emodin bianthrone and emodin bianthrone-hexose, resveratrol-malonyl-hexoside and taxifolin derivatives. Characterization of flavan-3-ols and proanthocyanidins was facilitated by post-chromatographic derivatization of the corresponding chromatographic zones with 4-dimethylaminocinnamaldehyde (DMACA) detection reagent., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Off-line two-dimensional countercurrent chromatography has been widely applied to the isolation of complex samples, but little research on the investigation of orthogonality in the selection of biphasic solvent systems is available. In the present work, the orthogonality in the selection of a biphasic solvent system for liquid-liquid chromatographic separation of aqueous extract and ether extract from the traditional Chinese medicinal plant Polygonum cuspidatum Sieb. et Zucc was evaluated by the correlation coefficient and space occupancy rate. In total, 25 different biphasic solvent systems were tested, and 313 system combinations were analysed. A convex hull methodology was used to determine the separation space and to optimize separation conditions. The correlation coefficient matrix was transformed into dendrograms and a colour map to visualize the dissimilarity between, and orthogonality for, all solvent systems. The aqueous extracts from Polygonum cuspidatum were separated using selected biphasic solvent systems with high orthogonality: ethyl acetate-ethanol-water (70:1:70, v/v) and petroleum ether-ethyl acetate-water (1:5:5, v/v). The ether extracts from Polygonum cuspidatum were also separated using selected biphasic solvent systems with high orthogonality: petroleum-ethyl acetate-methanol-aqueous 0.25 M NH 3 •H 2 O (5:5:5:5, v/v) and petroleum-ethyl acetate-methanol-water (5:5:5:5, v/v). Thirteen compounds were successfully obtained. The experimental results demonstrated that the evaluation of orthogonality provided an alternative strategy to select an applicable solvent system for the separation of complex samples using off-line two-dimensional countercurrent chromatography., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests., (Copyright © 2020. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) based on polydatin were prepared by precipitation polymerization method. Synthesis process of MIPs was optimized by discussion of functional monomers, porogens and the molar ratio of template- functional monomer-cross linker. Then, MIPs were prepared with polydatin as the template, 4-vinyl pyridine as the functional monomer, ethylene glycol dimethyl acrylate as the cross linker, acetonitrile as the porogen and the molar ratio of template-monomer-cross linker at 1:10:20. Scanning electron microscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectrometer were used to inspect macroscale and chemical bond of MIPs. Adsorption capability and selectivity of MIPs to polydatin were investigated by carrying out the static, dynamic and selective experiments. The results showed MIPs performed high adsorption ability and selectivity to polydatin, indicating MIPs could be used to separate and enrich polydatin from the complex systems. Finally, MIPs were applied as the adsorbent for isolation and purification of polydatin from the extract of Polygoni Cuspidati Rhizoma et Radix, rats' plasma and urine samples. MIPs were successfully used to separate polydatin from the Polygoni Cuspidati Rhizoma et Radix and recovery ranged from 89.2% to 91.6%. The maximum concentration of polydatin in rats' plasma and urine samples was 2.84 ± 0.0748 µg mL -1 and 2.64 ± 0.485 µg mL -1 , respectively. Moreover, to compare with the MIPs method, organic solvent methods were used to analyze the polydatin in rats' plasma and urine samples. The results illustrated MIPs method was effective and selective for enrichment of polydatin from the medicinal plants and biological samples., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Four new compounds including two new phenylpropanoid esters of sucrose, polygonusucroside A (1) and B (2); two new anthraquinones, 8-O-β-d-(6'-galloyl)-glucopyranoside (3) and polyanthraquinoside A (4), together with six known compounds were isolated from Polygonum cuspidatum. Their structures were established using UV, IR, HRESIMS, and NMR data. All compounds were evaluated for their α-glucosidase inhibitory activities and neuroprotective effects. Compounds 5, 7 and 9 showed significant α-glucosidase inhibitory activities with IC 50 values of 27.30, 5.51, and 1.09 μmol/L, respectively (acarbose as positive control, IC 50  = 6.17 μmol/L). In addition, the assessment of neuroprotective effect showed that compound 3 exhibited remarkable effect against PC12 cells injured by serum-deprivation and compounds 2, 7, and 9 exhibited moderate effects against PC12 cells injured by rotenone., Competing Interests: Conflict of interest No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

A semi-automated online platform was established successfully for preliminary screening of potential active flavonoids of traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs) in multicomponent system. Online coupling of the in vitro intestinal absorption model, solid phase extraction (SPE) and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was actualized at the first time. The Ussing chamber model was selected to absorb the constituents of TCMs. A mini chromatographic column filled with C18 was used as a SPE column for online enrichment of flavonoids. HPLC was applied to analyze the constituents screened by platform. With the use of rutin as a model flavonoid, the specifications of SPE column, eluting solvent, elution time and flow rate of eluent were systematically investigated to optimize online system. Under the optimal conditions, the linear range of rutin was 0.125-368 µg/mL with the correlation coefficient (R 2 ) greater than 0.9947. The limit of detection (LOD) was as low as 0.0500 µg/mL and the limit of quantification (LOQ) was 0.125 µg/mL. The intra-day relative standard deviation (RSD) and inter-day RSD was 2.5% and 3.8%, respectively. The recoveries of rutin in the intestinal absorption samples ranged from 93.2% to 94.0%. Finally, the online system was applied to screen the potential active flavonoids of Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi (Huangqin, HQ) and Polygoni Cuspidati Rhizoma et Radix (Huzhang, HZ). A total of 14 flavonoids of these two TCMs were identified by ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS), and 12 flavonoids of them were screened as the potential active components by online Ussing chamber-SPE-HPLC. In comparison with offline method and gavage in rats, the online system can screen the active constituents from TCMs more accurately and completely. The results demonstrated that the online system was reliable and sufficiently accurate for screening and determination of the potential active flavonoids of TCMs in multicomponent system., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Polydatin(PD), a natural active ingredient isolated from traditional Chinese herb Polygonum cuspidatum, is also found in daily foods such as grapes and red wine. It might play a potential therapeutic role in human health through its anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, anti-ischemia injury, anti-apoptosis, conditioning blood lipids and other effects, which makes it increasingly become a hotspot of research. Various studies have shown that PD has a protective effect in the ischemia-reperfusion injury of heart, lungs, kidneys, gastrointestinal tract, cerebra and other organs. However, the specific mechanism of action is less and not completely clear. In this study, we aim to review the protective mechanism of PD in the ischemia-reperfusion injury of various organs, and provide inspiration for future studies., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

We developed the first four HPTLC methods for the separation of proanthocyanidins according to degree of polymerization on HPTLC diol F 254S plates. Acetonitrile, ethyl acetate, ethyl acetate-formic acid (9:0.1, v/v) and toluene-acetone-formic acid (3:6:1, v/v) were used as developing solvents and 4-dimethylaminocinnamaldehyde (DMACA) as the detection reagent. Each of these methods enables separation of standards of procyanidin dimers from procyanidin trimer (procyanidin C1) and separation of B-type dimers (procyanidins B1, B2, B3) from A-type dimers (procyanidins A1, A2). Based on these HPTLC methods we developed four new HPTLC-MS/MS methods for analyses of proanthocyanidins on HPTLC diol F 254S plates and we identified B-type proanthocyanidins from monomers up to decamers in crude extracts of invasive Japanese knotweed (Fallopia japonica Houtt., Polygonum cuspidatum Sieb. & Zucc.) rhizomes. Monomers, monomer gallates, dimers, dimer gallates, dimer digallates, trimers, trimer gallates, tetramers, tetramer gallates, pentamers, pentamer gallates, hexamers, hexamer gallates, heptamers, octamers, nonamers and decamers were tentatively identified in Japanese knotweed rhizomes using developing solvents acetonitrile and toluene-acetone-formic acid (3:6:1, v/v). Ethyl acetate enabled separation from monomers up to hexamer gallates and ethyl acetate-formic acid (9:0.1, v/v) from monomers up to hexamers. During the five hours of stability testing of (-)-epicatechin and procyanidin B2 standards on HPTLC diol plates developed with all solvents we observed enhanced absorption at 280 nm. This was a totally unexpected phenomenon. This new discovery confirmed what we reported in our previous study on HPTLC silica gel. Enhanced absorption is influenced by the developing solvent (more than 30%), the stationary phase (up to 24%) and the light (up to 15%)., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

An UPLC-HR-MS metabolomics approach was used to study the effects of a 49-days oral supplementation with Polygonum cuspidatum extract in healthy rats. Multivariate analysis allowed to observe significant differences in the excretion of several markers between treated animals and control group. Among the others, the amounts of N-methyl-2-pyridone-5-carboxamide (2PY) and phenylacetylglycine (PAG) were reduced in the treated group compared to control. These compounds have been previously considered as markers of aging. Furthermore, the excretion of 3-hydroxysebacic acid and 4,6-dihydroxyquinoline was also changed following supplementation, although not significantly. Despite the relatively short time of treatment (7 weeks), the significant changes in the urinary levels of aging markers observed at day 49 suggests a potential role of this type of studies as a new approach in the evaluation of the anti-aging effects of plant extracts., (Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Ichthyophthirius multifiliis is a ciliated parasite that infests almost all freshwater fish species and causes great economic losses to the aquaculture industry. In this study, a compound with anti-I. multifiliis activity was isolated from Polygonum cuspidatum and identified as emodin. In vitro anti-I. multifiliis results showed that emodin at 1 mg/L killed all I. multifiliis theronts for 96.0 min, and at 0.5 mg/L or lower concentrations could not kill all I. multifiliis theronts, but could significantly reduce the infectivity of theronts after pretreatment with emodin at the low concentrations mentioned above for 2 h. Additionally, emodin at 1 mg/L and 2 mg/L completely terminated the reproduction of nonencysted and encysted tomonts, respectively. In vivo tests, emodin at 0.5 mg/L could cure infected grass carp and protect naive fish from I. multifiliis infection by continuous adding emodin for 10 days. The 96 h median lethal concentration (LC 50 ) of emodin to grass carp was 3.15 mg/L, which were approximately 18 and 7 times the median effective concentration (EC 50 ) of emodin for killing theronts (0.18 mg/L) and nonencysted tomonts (0.45 mg/L), respectively. On the basis of these results, emodin is an effective compound for the development of a new drug against I. multifiliis., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

On-line elution based TLC-MS is now a well-established technique, but the quality of the data obtained can sometimes be hampered by a severe spectral background or by strong ion suppression, especially when silica gel plates are used in combination with an acidic modifier in the developing solvent. We solved this issue simply and efficiently using two pre-developments of the plates, firstly with methanol-formic acid (10:1, v/v) and secondly with acetonitrile-methanol (2:1, v/v). This solution resulted in significant improvement in the sensitivity of HPTLC-MS methods. The applicability of this approach was proven on analysis of flavan-3-ols and proanthocyanidins in crude extracts of Japanese knotweed (Fallopia japonica Houtt.) rhizomes. Separations on HPTLC silica gel and HPTLC silica gel MS grade plates using developing solvents toluene-acetone-formic acid (3:3:1, 6:6:1, 3:6:1, v/v) and dichloromethane-acetone-formic acid (1:1:0.1, v/v) were followed by post-chromatographic derivatization with 4-dimethylaminocinnamaldehyde (DMACA) detection reagent. Examination of the stability of the analytes on the start confirmed that the plates should be developed immediately after the application of standards and sample test solutions. In a five hours stability testing after development we discovered an unexpected phenomenon of enhanced absorption at 280nm. However, based on an experiment with post-chromatographic derivatization with DMACA detection reagent, the analytes were proven to be sufficiently stable in the time frame of an HPTLC-MS analysis. This was important for development of the first HPTLC-MS and HPTLC-MS n methods for identification of flavan-3-ols and B-type proanthocyanidins from monomers up to decamers. For the first time, based on this research methodology, trimers, trimer gallates, tetramer gallates, pentamers, pentamer gallates, hexamers, hexamer gallates, heptamers, octamers, nonamers and decamers were tentatively identified in Japanese knotweed rhizomes. Additionally, all developed HPTLC-MS methods have enabled simultaneous identification of stilbenes (resveratrol, piceatannol hexoside, piceid) and anthraquinones (emodin, emodin-O-hexoside, emodin-O-(acetyl)-hexoside and emodin-O-(6'-O-malonyl)-hexoside)., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

For the strict quality control of herbs, a comprehensive strategy based on chromatographic profiles and chemometric methods which could reliably select quantitative indices, robustly quantitate multi-markers and systematically compare different chemometric methods was proposed and successfully applied to the quality analysis of P. cuspidatum. Based on the construction of chromatographic profiles by an efficient accelerated solvent extraction (ASE) and reliable high-performance liquid chromatography-ultraviolet (HPLC-UV) methods, different chemometric methods were employed, namely similarity analyses (SA), hierarchical clustering analysis (HCA) and linear discriminant analysis (LDA). The differences in classification of herb samples were studied for the first time. To reasonably determine the quality of herbs and evaluate different chemometric methods, a comprehensive strategy containing three key steps was performed including selection of quantitative indices, development of a reliable quantification method and adoption of an easily calculated and visible parameter. The quantitative method which was acceptable with good linearity with correlation coefficients >0.9995 and satisfactory repeatability (RSD<1.5%), precision (RSD<2.84%), reproducibility (RSD<2.88%), stability (RSD<2.85%) and recoveries (91.5%-105.6%, RSD<2.83%) was applied to quality evaluation of fourteen batches of the P. cuspidatum samples through simultaneous quantitative determination of fifteen marker compounds. The limits of quantitation of fifteen compounds ranged from 1 to 60μg/ml. From the results of the quality evaluation, it was found that the different calculation theories of the chemometric methods resulted in the variation of classifiers of samples: SA classified samples through the mean values and HCA & LDA classified similar objects., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Ten naphthalene derivatives including two unusual glycosides possessing a naphthalene-fused piceid via a [C8'-O-C6-C5-C7']-trans-dihydrofuran ring, two flavan derivatives, as well as sixteen known phenolic compounds, were isolated from Polygonum cuspidatum. The structures were determined by extensive NMR, MS, CD data, and chemical evidence. In the in vitro neuroprotective assays, at the concentration of 10 μM, five of these compounds exhibited significant effects against PC12 cells injured by rotenone., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Hollow fibre cell fishing with high performance liquid chromatography (HFCF-HPLC) is a newly developed method used to screen and fish bioactive compounds in traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs). In the study, colorectal cancer cell HCT116 was first seeded in a hollow fibre and used for screening and fishing active compounds from TCMs. The surface properties of the hollow fibre seeded with HCT116 cells, the non-specific binding between active centres in the fibre and the target compounds, the cell survival rate under different conditions before and after screening, the repeatability and recovery of HFCF-HPLC were investigated in detail. The cell fishing factor of active compound was defined in HFCF-HPLC. We employed HFCF-HPLC to screen and fish anthraquinones active compounds group from extracts of Polygonum cuspidatum, Cecropia obtusifolia L. and Polygoni multiflori radix praeparata. Some of the anthraquinones structures screened from TCMs were identified by comparing to the retention time of the reference substances confirmed by mass spectrometry. The ability of permeable membrane of anthraquinones screened by HFCF-HPLC was further described. Indomethacin was used as the positive control substance. Results demonstrated that HFCF-HPLC is an effective, stable and reliable method to screen and analyse bioactive compounds. Other bioactive compounds from TCMs could also be screened., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Methylglyoxal (MGO), a very reactive metabolite of glucose, plays a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of several chronic diseases associated with diabetes, and it has been validated as an attractive target for them. In the present study, a simple and effective method, namely pre-column incubation followed by fast high performance liquid chromatography based on superficially porous particles (shell), coupled with diode array detection and tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-DAD-MS(n)), was proposed for rapid and high-throughput screening of natural MGO scavengers directly from the crude extract of Polygonum cuspidatum Sieb. et Zucc, a well-known traditional Chinese medicine which was used for treatment of diabetic complications. The hypothesis is that upon reaction with MGO, the peak areas of components with MGO scavenging potency in the chromatogram will be significantly reduced or disappear, and the structural characterization could be achieved by UHPLC-DAD-MS(n) hyphenated technique. First of all, 12 compounds in P. cuspidatum were well separated within shorter time (~12 min) than previous methods and identified, and two of them, i.e. 3,5,4'-trihydroxystilbene-3-O-(6″-galloyl)-glucoside (3) and emodin-8-O-(6'-malonyl)-glucoside (8) were firstly reported ingredients. After incubation with MGO, four stilbene derivatives were demonstrated to possess potential MGO trapping activities. Furthermore, it was proved that both polydatin (piceid) and resveratrol exhibited effective MGO-trapping capacity by UHPLC analysis, and they could significantly inhibit the formation of advanced glycation end products (AGEs) in the human serum albumin (HSA)-MGO assay, indicating that they were potential candidate agents for delaying and preventing diabetic complications. Additionally, MGO trapping mechanism exploration by UHPLC-MS(n) showed that the positions 2 and 4 of the A ring of stilbene were major active sites for trapping MGO to form both mono- and di-MGO adducts, however, the glucosylation of the hydroxyl group would significantly decrease the trapping efficiency. Collectively, the current work provides a very promising method for rapid discovery of natural MGO scavengers directly from complex matrices such as herbal medicines with huge resources., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Aims: Resveratrol (Res) which is a polyphenolic phytoalexin, has various biological properties. In the present study, we investigated whether Res extracted from Polygonum cuspidatum can reduce oxidative damage and cognitive impairment in senescence-accelerated mouse (SAM)., Main Methods: Senescence-accelerated mice were administered with Res (25, 50, 100mg·kg(-1)·d(-1)) for 8weeks. The activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) and the content of malondialdehyde (MDA) in mice brain were determined. The gene expression of SOD in mice brain was investigated by real time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR)., Key Findings: The results showed that resveratrol significantly improved learning and memory ability in Morris water maze test and neuromuscular coordination and sensorimotor capacity in tightrope test. Meanwhile, Res increased the activities of antioxidant enzymes with a reduction in lipid peroxidation. And real time RT-PCR analysis also indicated that the change of SOD mRNA was the same as the modification of SOD activity in mice brain. Furthermore, Res could prevent cerebral mitochondrial DNA deletions which might be one of the causes resulting in learning and memory impairment., Significance: These results suggest that the pharmacological action of Res may offer a novel therapeutic strategy for the treatment of age-related conditions., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The study was designed to examine the effects of polydatin on ventricular remodeling induced by isoproterenol in mice and by abdominal aortic banding in rats. Polydatin reduced cardiac weight indexes in mice and rats, lowered the contents of cyclic AMP and angiotensin II in mice. It also decreased the size of cardiomyocyte, the levels of aldosterone, tumor necrosis factor-α, angiotensin II and endothelin-1, reduced ventricular collagen volume and decreased blood pressure in rats. The results demonstrate that polydatin has the beneficial effects on attenuating ventricular remodeling, which are associated with its inhibiting the activation of neurohormone, especially in rennin-angiotensin-aldosterone system., (Copyright © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Polygonum cuspidatum root has been traditionally used for the treatment of dental diseases in Korea. The purpose of this study was to evaluate effects of P. cuspidatum root on the development of dental caries, especially its effects against bacterial viability and caries-inducing factors of Streptococcus mutans and Streptococcus sobrinus. Among methanol extract of P. cuspidatum root and its fraction tested, ethyl acetate fraction, composed of polydatin, resveratrol, anthraglycoside B, and emodin, showed inhibitory effects on glycolytic acid production and glucosyltransferase activity of S. mutans and S. sobrinus in addition to antibacterial activities.

Piceatannol, compared with the renowned resveratrol, is a better anticancer agent and a superior agent with other biological activities. However, as there are only few plants reported to contain minute quantity of piceatannol, the scarcity of sources greatly impedes the piceatannol-related researches. To explore new sources of piceatannol, we established a sample preparation approach for screening the piceatannol in plants using HPLC-UV-fluorescence detection. When the HPLC is coupled with UV and fluorescence detectors, the decrease of signals in interferences and increase of signal in piceatannol in the fluorescence chromatogram mark clearly the position of the piceatannol peak; ultimately, it allows identification without standards. In this study, we systematically evaluated the factors affecting the extraction efficiency of piceatannol in sample preparation. Of the sample preparation strategies studied, direct solvent extraction and liquid nitrogen treatment followed by solvent extraction gave satisfactory recoveries for both piceatannol and resveratrol. These approaches avoided time-consuming lyophilization procedure. In addition, all procedures must be done in the dark to avoid negative impact of irradiation from fluorescence light on the recoveries of piceatannol and resveratrol. With the present method, we re-examined the plants previously claimed to contain only resveratrol for their piceatannol contents. The species examined included Polygonum cuspidatum, Arachis hypogaea, Vitis thunbergii, and Ampelopsis brevipedunculaata. The results showed, for the first time, all these plants contain piceatannol. The finding implies that the resveratrol-containing plants may also contain piceatannol. The results demonstrate the feasibility of these sample preparation approaches and may further the understanding for the distribution of piceatannol in plants.

In this paper, the application of 1-n-butyl -3-methylimidazolium-based ionic liquids aqueous solutions as solvents in the microwave-assisted extraction (MAE) technique was first developed for the extraction of trans-resveratrol from Rhizma Polygoni Cuspidati. 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium bromide ([bmim]Br) solution was selected as solvent; the conditions of MAE including the size of sample, liquid/solid ratio, extraction temperature and time were optimized by means of an orthogonal design L(9)(3(4)). Under optimized conditions, the extraction yield value of trans-resveratrol was 92.8% in a one-step extraction. The recovery was in the range 93.7-103.2% with relative standard deviation lower than 3.0% by the proposed procedure. The method was applied to extract trans-resveratrol from several different region samples. On the basis of extraction solvent and time, the proposed extraction technique was a green, rapid and alternative technique to extract and analyze trans-resveratrol in Rhizma Polygoni Cuspidati samples.

High-speed counter-current chromatography (HSCCC) was applied to the separation and purification of five compounds from the Chinese medicinal herb Polygonum cuspidatum Sieb. et Zucc. The crude extracts from P. cuspidatum Sieb. et Zucc were treated with light petroleum-ethyl acetate-methanol-water (2:5:4:6, v/v). Sample 1 was obtained from the lower phase and sample 2 from the upper phase. The sample 1 was separated with light petroleum-ethyl acetate-water (1:5:5, v/v) and yielded 19.3mg of piceid, 17.6 mg of anthraglycoside B from 200mg of sample 1. The sample 2 was separated with light petroleum-ethyl acetate-methanol-water (3:5:4:6, v/v) and light petroleum-ethyl acetate-methanol-water (3:5:7:3, v/v) in a gradient elution and yielded 18.5mg of resveratrol, 35.3mg of emodin and 8.2mg of physcion from 220 mg of sample 2. The purity of each compound is over 95% as determined by HPLC. The chemical structures of these components were identified by (1)H NMR and (13)C NMR.

Chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is endemic in Asia and its consequences are among the major public health problems in the world. Unfortunately, the therapeutic efficacies of present strategies are still unsatisfactory with a major concern about viral mutation. In search of effective antiviral agent, we examined the efficacy of extracts of Polygonum cuspidatum Sieb. et Zucc. (P. cuspidatum) against HBV in HepG2 2.2.15 cells by quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction. The expressions of viral antigens, HBeAg and HBsAg, were also determined by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay. The ethanol extract of P. cuspidatum could inhibit dose-dependently the production of HBV (p<0.0001) with an effective minimal dosage of 10 microg/ml. The water extract of P. cuspidatum might also inhibit the production of HBV at a higher dosage. The expression of HBsAg was significantly increased by both ethanol extract and water extract of P. cuspidatum dose-dependently (p<0.0001) and time-dependently (p<0.0001). Higher dose of water extract of P. cuspidatum (30 microg/ml) could inhibit the expression of HBeAg (p<0.05). The extract of P. cuspidatum might contain compounds that would contribute to the control of HBV infection in the future. However, its promoting effect on the expression of HBsAg and its cytotoxicity should be monitored. Further purification of the active compounds, identification and modification of their structures to improve the efficacy and decrease the cytotoxicity are required.