Medicinal plants used by the Tibetan in Shangri-la, Yunnan, China.

J Ethnobiol Ethnomed. 2009 May 5; 5(1): 15Liu Y, Dao Z, Yang C, Liu Y, Long CABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Medicinal plants used by the local people in Xizang (Tibet) have been investigated since the 1960s. The others out of Xizang, however, have been less understood, although they may be easily and strongly influenced by the various local herbal practices, diverse environments, local religious beliefs and different prevalent types of diseases. In 2006, two ethnobotanical surveys were organized in the county of Shangri-la, Yunnan Province, SW China, to document the traditional medicinal plants used by the Tibetan people. METHODS: After literature surveying, four local townships were selected to carry out the field investigation. Three local healers were interviewed as key informants. The methods of ethnobotany, anthropology and participatory rural appraisal (PRA) were used in the field surveys. Plant taxonomic approach was adopted for voucher specimen identification. RESULTS: Sixty-eight medicinal plant species in 64 genera of 40 families were recorded and collected. Among them, 23 species were found to have medicinal values that have not been recorded in any existing Tibetan literatures before, and 31 species were recorded to have traditional prescriptions. Moreover, the traditional preparations of each species and some folk medicinal knowledge were recorded and analyzed. These traditional prescriptions, preparations, new medicinal plants and folk medicinal knowledge and principles were discovered and summarized by local traditional Tibetan healers through times of treatment practices, and were passed down from generation to generation. CONCLUSIONS: As a part of the cultural diversity of Tibetan community, these traditional medicinal knowledge and experiences may provide data and information basis for the sustainable utilization and development of Tibetan medicine, and may contribute to the local economic development. However, for many reasons, they are disappearing gradually as time goes by. Our study showed that there were abundant traditional Tibetan medicinal prescriptions and using methods. It implies that more Tibetan medicinal plants and traditional knowledge can be discovered. Further research should be done to save the wealth of these traditional medicinal knowledge and experiences before they are dying out.

A doctor of the highest caliber treats an illness before it happens.

Med Anthropol. 2009 Apr-Jun; 28(2): 166-88Zhan M"A doctor of the highest caliber treats an illness before it happens," a seemingly antiquated doctrine in traditional Chinese medicine, is enjoying surging popularity among practitioners in urban China and the United States today. In this essay, I examine how the meanings and contours of traditional Chinese medicine have shifted in recent decades as it is molded into a "preventive medicine" through translocal encounters. From the 1960s and the early 1970s, the emphasis China's socialist health care placed on preventive health among the rural poor shaped the practice of Chinese herbal medicine and especially acupuncture. This version of preventive medicine was also exported to the Third World, which China strove to champion. Since the end of the Cold War and especially during the 1990s, as China strives to "get on track with the world" (specifically, affluent nation-states, especially in North America and the European Union), traditional Chinese medicine has been rapidly commodified and reinvented as a new kind of preventive medicine tailored for cosmopolitan, middle-class lifestyles. The emergence of this radically new preventive medicine resuscitates certain stories of antiquity and continuity, emphasizing that traditional Chinese medicine has always been "preventive" while obliterating recent memories of the proletariat world and its preventive medicine.

Identification and determination of the major constituents in Traditional Chinese Medicinal formula Danggui-Shaoyao-San by HPLC-DAD-ESI-MS/MS.

J Pharm Biomed Anal. 2009 Apr 8; Chen L, Qi J, Chang YX, Zhu D, Yu BDanggui-Shaoyao-San (DSS), a famous traditional Chinese medicine formula consisting of six herbal medicines (Paeonia lactiflora, Angelica sinensis, Ligusticum chuanxiong, Poria cocos, Atractylodis macrocephalae and Rhizoma Alismatis), has been used as a classical gynecological remedy in China for centuries. However, its active substances have remained unknown. In this paper, an HPLC/DAD/ESI-MS/MS method was developed for the qualitative and quantitative analysis of the major constituents in DSS. The ESI-MS/MS fragmentation behavior of the reference compounds was proposed for aiding the structural identification of components in DSS extract. Forty-one compounds including monoterpene glycosides, phenolic acids, phathalides, sesquiterpenoids and triterpenes were identified or tentatively characterized by comparing their retention times, UV and MS spectra with those of authentic compounds or literature data, and 14 of them (gallic acid, albiflorin, paeoniflorin, ferulic acid, benzoic acid, senkyunolide I, coniferyl ferulate, senkyunolide A, 3-butylphthalide, Z-ligustilide, Z-butylidenephthalide, atractylcnolide II, atractylcnolide I and levistolide A) were determined by HPLC-DAD using a C(18) column and gradient elution of acetonitrile/water-formic acid (100:0.1, v/v). The linearity, precision, accuracy, LOD and LOQ were validated for the quantification method, which proved sensitive, accurate and reproducible. The study might provide a basis for the quality control of DSS extracts and preparations.

The analysis of heavy metals in Chinese herbal medicine by flow injection-mercury hydride system and graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry.

Phytochem Anal. 2009 Apr 29; Yuan X, Ling KH, Keung CWINTRODUCTION: Simple and robust atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) analytical methods were developed to determine the contents of arsenic (As), lead (Pb) and mercury (Hg) contained in Chinese herbal medicine products or Chinese proprietary medicine. OBJECTIVE: To develop AAS analytical methods to determine the contents of the toxic heavy metals in herbal medicine, and thus monitor them according to the regulated content limits to ensure the quality and safety of herbal products. METHODOLOGY: A flow injection-mercury hydride system technique was used for the quantitation of As and Hg, and a graphite furnace technique was used for the analysis of Pb. Limits of detection (LOD) for the three toxic heavy metals were found to be 0.3 ppb for As, 0.1 ppb for Pb and 0.5 ppb for Hg. Eight samples of 'Yin Qiao Jie Du' tablets available on the market were selected as the model herbal medicine for analysis. CONCLUSION: The developed analytical methods are sensitive enough to detect these heavy metals to meet regulated guidelines. No trace amounts of Hg were found in the test samples due to the fact that the Hg level is less than the LOD. However, variable amounts of As (135.0-5349.3 ppb) and Pb (22.5-968.3 ppb) were found in all products. Copyright (c) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.