Abstract Background Chinese materia medica processing is a distinguished and unique pharmaceutical technique in Traditional Medicine (TCM) used for reducing side effects, increasing or even changing therapeutic efficacy of the raw herbs.Changes essential components induced by an optimized procedure are primarily responsible increased medicinal plants.The kidney-yang invigorating effect rice win...

Cistanche deserticola MA (C. deserticola) has been widely used as a laxative herbal in herbal medicine for the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome or constipation, and echinacoside (ECH) is one of the major bioactive ingredients in this herbal. Our aim was to investigate the effect of ECH on intestinal epithelial cell growth and death. MODE-K, an intestinal epithelial cell line, was used as a...

Parkinson's disease (PD) is one of the most common neurodegenerative diseases. Recent epidemiological studies suggest that echinacoside (ECH), a phenylethanoid glycoside found in Cistanche deserticola, has a protective effect against the development of PD. However, the detailed mechanisms of how ECH suppresses neuronal death have not been fully elucidated. In this study, we confirmed that ECH p...

Cistanche tubulosa phenylethanoid glycosides (CTPG) have been shown various biological activities including anti-allergy, hepatoprotective activity and bone regeneration. However, the anti-tumor activity of CTPG needs to be investigated. CTPG was used to treat B16-F10 cells both in vitro and in vivo. We found that CTPG dramatically changed the morphology of B16-F10 cells, and significantly redu...

Objective: To investigate the inhibitory effects of phenylethanoid glycosides (PhGs) derived from cistanche on melanogenesis in cultured human epidermal melanocytes, and explore the structure-activity relationship through comparison of the inhibitory effect of ten kinds of PhGs. Methods: L-dopa assay was performed to examine the effect of PhGs on tyrosinase activity. Alkaline lysis method was u...

BACKGROUND Herba Cistanches (Roucongrong) is effective in treating Shenxu Zheng ('kidney-deficiency syndrome'). However, the mechanisms and systemic metabolic responses to the herbal intervention are unclear. METHODS Using GC-MS-based metabolic profiling, we investigated the metabolic responses to Herba Cistanches intervention in a rat model of the hydrocortisone-induced 'kidney-deficiency sy...

Since scalp hair loss has increased recently even in young people, seriously affecting individual's quality of life, the hair growth-stimulating effects of Laminaria japonica extract (LJE) and Cistanche tubulosa extract (CTE) were investigated. After confirming anagen phase of follicles under shaving, male C57BL/6 mice were dermally applied with 3% Minoxidil or orally administered with the comb...