Daily consumption of Reliv Glucaffect for 8 weeks significantly lowered blood glucose and body weight in 50 subjects.

Phytother Res. 2009 Apr 29; Belcaro G, Cesarone M, Silvia E, Ledda A, Stuard S, G V, Dougall M, Cornelli U, Hastings C, Schönlau FA public change to healthier lifestyles with more physical activity and better nutrition, including caloric restriction, is required to address the obesity epidemic. Weight loss can be achieved by caloric restrictions; current research suggests that this may be achieved by consumption of slowly absorbed carbohydrates owing to the resulting prolonged satiety.Our rationale was to prolong the satiety of overweight volunteers by supplementation with a proprietary formulation Glucaffect which delays absorption of carbohydrates. Glucaffect provides potent alpha-glucosidase inhibitors of herbal source such Pycnogenol((R)), Madeglucyl and various others which obstruct absorption of carbohydrates, such as starch.Fifty overweight subjects received either Glucaffect or an inactive control product for eight weeks. Consumption of Glucaffect was found to statistically significantly lower blood-fasting glucose from baseline 145.3 mg/dL to 101.1 mg/dL (-30.4%) and Hba1c from 7.59% to 6.33% as compared to the control group where values decreased only marginally.The weight and the body mass index (BMI) decreased significantly from an average of 88.5 kg (BMI 26.8 kg/m(2)) to 81.3 kg (BMI 24.5 kg/m(2)) as compared to the control group.In conclusion, Glucaffect enabled subjects with metabolic syndrome to achieve healthy BMI and blood glucose levels. Glucaffect was well tolerated and no subject dropped out. Copyright (c) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Ultrasonic extraction and HPLC determination of anthraquinones, aloe-emodine, emodine, rheine, chrysophanol and physcione, in roots of Polygoni multiflori.

Phytochem Anal. 2009 Apr 29; Jiao Y, Zuo YINTRODUCTION: Polygoni multiflori, one of traditional Chinese herbal medicines for the treatment of various diseases commonly associated with aging, is known to contain active anthraquinone ingredients. However, the content of the anthraquinones varies among P. multiflori samples with collection season and sites. Thus, simple, reliable and accurate analytical methods for determining of anthraquinones in P. multiflori products are needed for the quality control and pharmacological studies. OBJECTIVE: To develop an HPLC method for the simultaneous determination of five anthraquinones, aloe-emodine, rheine, emodine, chrysophanol and physcione, in the roots of P. multiflori. METHODOLOGY: Anthraquinones were extracted from the roots of P. multiflori using aqueous alcohol solutions or hot water under ultrasonication. Separation and quantitation of anthraquinones was accomplished using a reversed-phase C(18) column with the mobile phase of methanol-water-phosphoric acid (600:400:1), and the detection wavelength of 254 nm. RESULTS: Seventy per cent aqueous ethanol showed the highest extraction efficiency for anthraquinones from roots of P. multiflori when compared with four other extraction solvents tested. All calibration curves were linear over the concentration range tested with the square of correlation coefficients >0.999. The detection limits (S/N = 3) were 0.89, 1.1, 1.6, 1.7 and 2.0 ng for chrysophanol, aloe-emodine, rheine, emodine and physcione, respectively. Emodine and physcione were found in the samples tested at concentrations of 0.341 and 0.197 mg/g, respectively. CONCLUSION: The described HPLC methods are simple, accurate and selective techniques for separation and quantification of anthraquinones in roots of P. multiflori and other plant samples. Copyright (c) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Direct metabolic fingerprinting of commercial herbal tinctures by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and mass spectrometry.

Phytochem Anal. 2009 Apr 29; Politi M, Zloh M, Pintado ME, Castro PM, Heinrich M, Prieto JMINTRODUCTION: Tinctures are widely used liquid pharmaceutical preparations traditionally obtained by maceration of one or more medicinal plants in ethanol-water solutions. Such a process results in the extraction of virtually hundreds of structurally diverse compounds with different polarities. Owing to the large chemical diversity of the constituents present in the herbal tinctures, the analytical tools used for the quality control of tinctures are usually optimised only for the detection of single chemical entities or specific class of compounds. OBJECTIVE: In order to overcome the major limitations of the current methods used for analysis of tinctures, a new methodological approach based on NMR spectroscopy and MS spectrometry has been tested with different commercial tinctures. METHODOLOGY: Diffusion-edited (1)H-NMR (1D DOSY) and (1)H-NMR with suppression of the ethanol and water signals have been applied here for the first time to the direct analysis of commercial herbal tinctures derived from Echinacea purpurea, Hypericum perforatum, Ginkgo biloba and Valeriana officinalis. The direct injection of the tinctures in the MS detector in order to obtain the corresponding metabolic profiles was also performed. RESULTS: Using both NMR and MS methods it was possible, without evaporation or separation steps, to obtain a metabolic fingerprint able to distinguish between tinctures prepared with different plants. Batch-to-batch homogeneity, as well as degradation after the expiry date of a batch, was also investigated. CONCLUSION: The techniques proposed here represent fast and convenient direct analyses of medicinal herbal tinctures. Copyright (c) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Asian ginseng enhances the anti-proliferative effect of 5-fluorouracil on human colorectal cancer: Comparison between white and red ginseng.

Arch Pharm Res. 2009 Apr; 32(4): 505-13Fishbein AB, Wang CZ, Li XL, Mehendale SR, Sun S, Aung HH, Yuan CSPrevious studies showed that Asian ginseng, Panax ginseng C.A. Meyer, may have anti-cancer properties. However, there is limited data exploring the use of Asian ginseng as an adjuvant to chemotherapy, and minimal mechanistic studies related to their possible synergistic activities. In this study, the content of 8 ginsenosides, Rb1, Rb2, Rb3, Rc, Rd, Re, Rg1 and Rg3, in the extracts of white ginseng (WG) and red ginseng (RG) were determined by HPLC. Using HCT-116 human colorectal cancer cells, we compared the efficacy of WG and RG. We evaluated the synergy between ginseng and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), and explored the mechanism of their anti-proliferative effects. As single extract, WG or RG used at concentrations of 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3 mg/mL, inhibited HCT-116 cell proliferation in a concentration-related manner. WG at 0.2 mg/mL did not show obvious synergy with 5-FU co-treatment, while RG at 0.2 and 0.3 mg/mL significantly enhanced the anti-proliferative effects of 5-FU at concentrations of 10, 50 and 100 muM (P < 0.05). Using flow cytometric assay, RG 0.3 mg/mL did not affect cancer cell apoptotic induction activity. However, the RG induced cell cycle arrest in the G1 phase, while 5-FU arrested the cell in the S phase. Different ginsenoside profiles are responsible for the observed differences in pharmacological effects. The effects of 8 ginsenosides on HCT-116 cells were assayed. Rd and Rg3 showed positive anti-proliferative effect. Our data suggested a potential for RG as an adjuvant therapy in the treatment of colorectal cancer, via a synergistic action.