We chose five communities, representing a mild to severe gradient of grassland desertification in a semi-arid area of Ordos Plateau, northwestern China, to explore the spatial relationships among plant species, above-ground biomass (AGB), and plant nutrients (N and P). Community 1 (C1) was dominated by Stipa bungeana; Community 2 (C2) by a mix of S. bungeana and the shrub Artemisia ordosica; Co...

PURPOSE To compare the pharmacodynamic effects of an anodyne spray (XQAS) containing extracts of two herbs, Cynanchum paniculatum (CP) and Illicium henryi (IH), with those of spray containing the vehicle alone, CP alone (CPS) or IH alone (IHS), when applied topically acute soft tissue injury (STI) in an animal model. METHODS Acute closed STI was modeled by hammer blow in the hind leg muscle o...

Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) consists of highly effective prescription medications for treating menopausal symptoms; however, these agents have exhibited side effects including the risk of estrogen-induced carcinogenesis. Therefore, interest in phytotherapy-based materials as a natural source of alternatives to estrogen therapy has increased. However, some of these herbal medicines have be...

A method coupling high-performance liquid chromatography with hybrid ion trap time-of-flight mass spectrometry (TOFMS) using an electrospray ionization source was firstly used to characterize ten major pregnane glycosides including one novel compound auriculoside IV from the roots of Cynanchum auriculatum Royle ex Wight. In the MS/MS spectra, fragmentation reactions of the [M+Na]+ were recorded...

The root of Cynanchum wilfordii (C. wilfordii) contains several biologically active compounds which have been used as traditional medicines in Asia. In the present study, we evaluated the anti-inflammatory effects of an ethanol root extract of C. wilfordii (CWE) on tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α-stimulated human aortic smooth muscle cells (HASMCs). The inhibitory effects of CWE on vascular cell ...

SNARE proteins are essential to vesicle trafficking and membrane fusion in eukaryotic cells. In addition, the SNARE-mediated secretory pathway can deliver diverse defense products to infection sites during exocytosis-associated immune responses in plants. In this study, a novel gene (CkSNAP33) encoding a synaptosomal-associated protein was isolated from Cynanchum komarovii and characterized. Ck...