The Paeonia root, with or without bark, are considered vital traditional Chinese medicine materials; the examples are those of Bai Shao, Chi Shao, and Dan Pi. In this study, we examine 24 genes and their expressions involved in the biosynthesis of paeoniflorin and its derivatives, which are active compounds of the Paeonia root, in Paeonia lactiflora and P. suffruticosa, as well as other related...

Cis-platinum (II) diammine dichloride (CDDP) is a platinum-based anticancer agent, and is often used for chemotherapy for malignant tumors, albeit CDDP has serious side-effects, including xerostomia (dry mouth). Since patients with xerostomia have reduced quality of life, it is urgent and important to identify nontoxic and natural agents capable of reducing the adverse effect of chemotherapy on...

Poststroke dementia commonly occurs following stroke, with its pathogenesis related to β-amyloid production and apoptosis. The present study evaluate the effects of paeonol, one of the phenolic phytochemicals isolated from the Chinese herb Paeonia suffruticosa Andrews (MC), on protection from memory loss after ischemic stroke in the subacute stage. Rats were subjected to transient middle cerebr...

Capillary electrophoresis with electrochemical detection has been employed for the separation and determination of the three active constituents (paeonol, benzoyloxypaeoniflorin, and oxypaeoniflorin) in traditional Chinese medicine, Moutan Cortex (root cortex of Paeonia suffruticosa Andrews). The effects of several important factors, such as the concentration of running buffer, the separation v...

Dermatologic toxicities resulting in dose reduction or discontinuation of treatment pose challenges for targeted anticancer therapies. We conducted this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial to investigate the efficacy of topical application of Compound Danxiong Granules (CDG) for treatment of dermatologic toxicities associated with targeted anticancer therapies. One hundred and te...

Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) cells are characterized by strong drug resistance and high metastatic incidence. In this study, the effects of ten kinds of Chinese herbs on RCC cell migration and proliferation were examined. Aqueous extract of Paeonia suffruticosa (PS-A) exerted strong inhibitory effects on cancer cell migration, mobility, and invasion. The results of mouse xenograft experiments sho...

Cigarette smoking causes persistent lung inflammation that is mainly regulated by redox-sensitive pathways. We have previously reported that cigarette smoke (CS) activates reactive oxygen species- (ROS-) sensitive mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs)/nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) signaling leading to induction of lung inflammation. Paeonol, the main phenolic compound present in the Chinese her...

Moutan cortex, the root bark of Paeonia suffruticosa Andrews (Paeoniaceae), has pharmacological effects such as anti-inflammatory, antiallergic, analgesic and antioxidant activities. We investigated a methanol extract of Moutan cortex for neuroprotective effects on neurotoxicity induced by amyloid β protein (Aβ) (25-35) in cultured rat cortical neurons. Exposure of cultured cortical neurons to ...

Evolution of C4 photosynthesis is not distributed evenly in the plant kingdom. Particularly interesting is the situation in the Brassicaceae, because the family contains no C4 species, but several C3-C4 intermediates, mainly in the genus Moricandia Investigation of leaf anatomy, gas exchange parameters, the metabolome, and the transcriptome of two C3-C4 intermediate Moricandia species, M. arven...

The spring flowering of tree peony (Paeonia suffruticosa) not only attract tens of million tourists every year, but it can also serve as a bio-indicator of climate change. Examining climate-associated spatiotemporal changes in peony flowering can contribute to the development of smarter flower-viewing tourism by providing more efficient decision-making information. We developed a panel data mod...