Traditional Chinese

Chinese Herbal Medicines. Many traditional Chinese medicines have been screened for radioprotective activity in experimental animals. In one study of more than a thousand Chinese herbs, a number of agents increased the survival rate of dogs exposed to a lethal dose of y-rays by 30—40%, and some symptoms of radiation injury were ameHorated. These effects are potentially related to stimulation of the hemopoietic and immune systems (130). Extracts of five Chinese dmg plants, as weU as aspirin, effectively protected mice exposed to 7.5—8.0 Gy (750—800 rad) of y-radiation, and increased survival rates by 8—50% (131). Several Chinese traditional medicines, adininistered ip before or after irradiation, protected against Hpid peroxidation in a variety of mouse tissues, including BM, Hver, and spleen, as weU as in mouse Hver microsomal suspensions irradiated in vitro (132). 

Isofiavones have also been found in mothers milk following consumption of roasted soyabeans or if eating a traditional Chinese diet. The possibility that feeding of soy-based infant milk could be harmful has been noted by Turner and... 

Bioactive polyphenol acids and lignans with 0-heterocyclic fragments and terpenoid 8-lactones as components of traditional Chinese drugs 98PAC547. 

For centuries, the beneficial effects of crude extracts from the ginkgo tree were well known in China and India. In traditional Chinese medicine, a boiled-down extract of ginkgo leaves is inhaled to alleviate asthmatic symptoms, and, in India, ginkgo extracts constitute a key ingredient of Soma, a mystical liquid that is thought to increase life span.5 The Japanese know it as the Itcho tree and they frequently use its edible fruit, the ginkgo nut, in cooking. 

M.17 Tu-jin-pi is a root bark used in traditional Chinese medicines for the treatment of athlete s foot. One of the active ingredients in tu-jin-pi is pseudolaric acid A, which is known to contain carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. A chemist... 

The use of ultrasonic (US) radiation (typical range 20 to 850 kHz) to accelerate Diels-Alder reactions is undergoing continuous expansion. There is a parallelism between the ultrasonic and high pressure-assisted reactions. Ultrasonic radiations induce cavitation, that is, the formation and the collapse of microbubbles inside the liquid phase which is accompanied by the local generation of high temperature and high pressure [29]. Snyder and coworkers [30] published the first ultrasound-assisted Diels-Alder reactions that involved the cycloadditions of o-quinone 37 with appropriate dienes 38 to synthesize abietanoid diterpenes A-C (Scheme 4.7) isolated from the traditional Chinese medicine, Dan Shen, prepared from the roots of Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge. 

Ephedrine and pseudoephediine are a vasodilator and decongestant respectively used widely in the treatment of asthma and the symptoms of colds and influenza. These pharmaceuticals were derived originally fi om the plant Ephedra sinica and used in traditional Chinese medicinal preparations. Although some are still produced fi om such sources, the major production is via a fermentation process followed by a chemical catalytic reaction. As shown in Figure 1, the intermediate / -phenylacetylcarbinol (PAC) is produced by decarboxylation of pyruvate followed by ligation to benzaldehyde. 

YUAN R, LIN Y (2000) Traditional Chinese medicine an approach to scientific proof and clinical validation. Pharmacol Ther. 86 191-8. 

Han, H., Li, D. Zhang, D. (2004). The advances in the treatment of dementias with Chinese traditional medicine. Zhejiang Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine, 11, 498-9. 

Wang, J., Huang, Y. Chen, S. (2004). Advances in the treatment of depression with Chinese traditional medicine. Traditional Chinese Medicine Research, 17(3), 64-5. 

Ni Hua-Ching. Internal alchemy the natural way to immortality. Malibu (CA) Santa Monica (CA) Shrine of the Eternal Breath of Tao College of Tao Traditional Chinese Healing, 1992. xii, 248 p. ISBN 0-937064-51-3... 

Borchardt, J.K. Traditional Chinese drug therapy. Drug News Perspect 16, no. 10 (Dec 2003) 698-702. 

More than 4,000 years old, traditional Chinese medicine continues to be widely practiced in China and in western countries. Traditional Chinese medicine teaches that good health is the result of harmony and balance between five basic elements earth, water, fire, wood and metal. Also important to health are the two types of energy Yin and Yang, constituting a vital substance that circulates through the body. Drug therapy has been one of the means used in Chinese medicine to keep these elements and the flow of energy in balance. Many of the same herbs used thousands of years ago in China could be the source of new pharmaceuticals in Western medicine... 

J. S. Yang and Y. W. Chen, Proceedings of the Symposium on the Chemistry of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Medicinal Natural Products, p. 86. Chinese Pharmaceutical Society, Nanning, China, October, 1983. 

Hu, L., Chen, X., Kong, L., Su, X., Ye, M., Zou, H. (2005). Improved performance of comprehensive two-dimensional HPLC separation of traditional Chinese medicines by using a silica monolithic column and normalization of peak heights. J. Chromatogr. A 1092, 191 198. 

Chiu s group [193] used this domino process for an entry to pseudolaric acid 6/2-27, starting from 6/2-28, to yield 6/2-29 and 6/2-30 as an almost l l-mixture of di-astereomers (Scheme 6/2.5). Attempts to improve the stereoselectivity by using chiral rhodium complexes did not change the picture very much. The pseudolaric acids A, B and C are diterpenoids, which were isolated from the root bark of Pseudo-larix kaempferi Gordon (Pinaceae), and are components of the traditional Chinese medicine called tujinpi. They reveal antifungal activity and cytotoxicities at submicromolar levels [194]. 

Quinolizine alkaloids, including sophocarpine, matrine and sophoridine have been determined by GC-MS techniques in kuhuang, a traditional Chinese medicine (GC = gas chromatography) <2005MI967>. Similarly, GC-MS has allowed a phytochemical study of the quinolizidine alkaloids of Genista tenera <2005MI264>. 

Another approach to the generation of an iminium cation suitable for cyclization is the protonation of dihydropyridine derivatives. One example can be found in Scheme 48, where treatment of compound 243 with acid induced its cyclization to indoloquinolizine 244, a precursor in the first total synthesis of (i)-tangutorine 245, an alkaloid isolated from a traditional Chinese medicinal plant <2001TL6593>. 

The structures of sclerophytins A 17 and B 18, isolated from the soft coral Sclerophytum capitalis, were revised on basis of spectroscopic re-evaluation . Two unusual flavonoid tetrahydrofuranyl skeletons, namely tephrorin A 19 and B 20, were identified from Tephrosia purpurea . An alkaloid cartormin 21 was isolated and identified from Carthamus tinctorius, a plant used widely as a traditional Chinese medicine, <00TL1955>. 

The orsellinic acid derivative lasiodiplodin 84 and its de-O-methyl congener are found, i.a., in the roots of Arnebia euchroma, a plant which is used in traditional Chinese medicine. These compounds elicit diverse biological responses as inhibitors of prostaglandin biosynthesis, cyctotoxic agents, and plant growth regulators. 

---