A new phloroglucinol diglycoside 1, together with eight known compounds, were isolated from Hypericum japonicum Thunb. The structure of the new compound 1 was determined by spectroscopic methods to be 4,6-dimethyl-5-O-[alpha-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1-->6)-alpha-D-glucopyranosyl] multifidol. Different solvent extracts of Hypericum japonicum Thunb. were tested for in vivo antihypoxic activity using mi...

PREMISE OF THE STUDY Microsatellite or simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers were developed to investigate the influence of ecological factors on gene flow and spatial genetic structuring of the submerged plant Ranunculus bungei (Ranunculaceae), which is regarded as an important species for understanding how plants adapt to an aquatic environment. METHODS AND RESULTS Twenty-two microsatellite ...

In the research, genetic analysis of Aralia cordata Thunb. (Araliaceae) was conducted using randomly amplified polymorphism DNA (RAPD). 161 loci were detected with 12 RAPD primers. Percentage of Polymorphic Band (PPB) varied from 34.78% to 63.35%. All the samples were respectively collected from the eight provinces richest in Aralia cordata Thunb resources in China, including Hunan, Yunnan, Zhe...

BACKGROUND/AIMS Complementary medicines, including herbal preparations and nutritional supplements, are widely used without prescriptions. As a result, there has been growing interest in the risk of hepatotoxicity with these agents. It is difficult to determine causal relationships between these herbal preparations and hepatotoxicity. We report on 25 patients diagnosed with toxic hepatitis foll...

The antioxidant function of edible flowers have attracted increasing interest. However, information is lacking on the impact of edible flowers on oxidative injury including hypoxia-re-oxygenation and hyperlipidemia. The antioxidant activities of aqueous extracts from 12 Chinese edible flowers were assessed in four different antioxidant models, including total antioxidant capacity (TAC), oxygen ...

The present study was designed to determine the physicochemical properties of yam (Dioscorea) solution fermented by L. bulgaricus, the protective effect of fermented Dioscorea opposita Thunb. on stomach lesions, and the possibility of its application to fermented dairy products. When the concentration of yam increased, the pH increased in raw powder samples but not in extracted powder samples. ...

Plant extracts have been used as herbal medicines to treat a wide variety of human diseases. We used response surface methodology (RSM) to optimize the Artemisia capillaris Thunb. extraction parameters (extraction temperature, extraction time, and ethanol concentration) for obtaining an extract with high anti-inflammatory activity at the cellular level. The optimum ranges for the extraction par...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Genetic connectivity between plant populations allows for exchange and dispersal of adaptive genes, which can facilitate plant population persistence particularly in rapidly changing environments. METHODS Patterns of historic gene flow, flowering phenology and contemporary pollen flow were investigated in two common herbs, Ranunculus bulbosus and Trifolium montanum, along ...

In clonal plants, evolution of plastic foraging by increased lengths of leaves and internodes under unfavourable conditions may be constrained by costs and limits of plasticity. We studied costs and limits of plasticity in foraging characteristics in 102 genotypes of the stoloniferous herb Ranunculus reptans. We grew three replicates of each genotype with and three without competition by the na...