Chinese herbal medicine ingredients

Chinese herbal medicine chemistry refers to the science of studying the chemical constituents of Chinese herbal medicines using the theory and methods of modern chemistry. The research object of Chinese herbal medicine chemistry is the chemical constituents in Chinese herbal medicines. The chemical composition of Chinese herbal medicines is very complicated, usually with sugars, amino acids, proteins, oils and waxes. , enzymes, pigments, vitamins, organic acids, tannins, inorganic salts, volatile oils, alkaloids, anthraquinones, etc. Each Chinese herbal medicine may contain multiple ingredients. Among these ingredients, some of them have obvious biological activity and play a medical role, and are often referred to as active ingredients such as alkaloids, anthraquinones, volatile oils, amino acids and the like. The reason why Chinese herbal medicine has a medical effect is mainly due to the active ingredients contained therein. In addition to many of the active ingredients of Chinese herbal medicine that have been researched and widely used in the past, such as berberine ( berberine), anti-inflammatory anti-inflammatory berberine in ephedrine, ephedrine in ephedra, and blood pressure-reducing components in Rauvolfia, In recent years, more active ingredients of Chinese herbal medicine have been discovered at home and abroad, especially in the field of anti-tumor, cardiovascular diseases and slow-lived bronchitis. Other ingredients are ubiquitous in Chinese herbal medicine, but usually have no biological activity and cannot be used for medical purposes. They are called "invalid ingredients" such as sugars, proteins, pigments, resins, inorganic salts and the like. However, effective and ineffective are not absolute, and some ingredients that were originally considered to be ineffective are found to be biologically active and become active ingredients. For example, the polysaccharides contained in mushrooms and alfalfa have certain anti-tumor effects; the polysaccharides in seaweed have hypolipidemic effect, and the trichosanthin protein has an induction effect; tannins are common in Chinese herbal medicines and generally do not play a leading role in the treatment of diseases. It is an ineffective ingredient, but it is an effective ingredient in gallnut, Polygonum cuspidatum and mantle because of its high content of tannin and certain biological activity. For example, mucus is usually an ineffective ingredient, while in white and middle it is an active ingredient. In the development of modern science, various sophisticated separation methods tend to be rapidly quantified, making it possible to further study the chemical composition of Chinese herbal medicines. In particular, the combination of gas chromatography and mass spectrometry combines several steps of separation, purification and identification, which improves the speed and accuracy of structural determination, and shows a broad prospect for the study of the chemical composition of Chinese herbal medicine. In the 1950s, Since the discovery of the blood pressure component reserpine biopterin from the folk medicine Rauvolfia and the discovery of the anticancer active ingredient C. vinca from the periwinkle flower, the international scientific community has re-emphasized the research on the botanical components of folk botanicals. It is particularly worth mentioning that countries around the world are competing to screen anti-cancer active ingredients from botanicals. In China, in recent years, artemisinin has been found to be a quick-acting antimalarial drug from the Chinese herbal medicine Artemisia annua L.; the ergoside obtained from the root bud of Agrimony has a good mites effect; Other studies on ginseng and acanthopanax senticosus have shown that Chinese herbal chemistry has made great progress. It is expected that some new breakthroughs will be obtained from plant ingredients in the treatment of some major diseases. Based on the significant achievements in the study of active constituents of Chinese herbal medicines and plants, a new discipline of plant tissue culture has been developed, which is a new research field for the study of plant tissues to produce secondary metabolites by artificial culture. A large number of active ingredients that are beneficial to industrial production. For example, the tissue culture of ginseng has a crude soap content of up to 21%. At the same time, tissue culture is promising to develop into an effective method for studying the biosynthetic pathway of plant constituents. The chemical plant taxonomy proposed in the past two or three decades is a development in the study of phytochemical constituents, that is, it is hoped that a true natural classification system will be developed from the distribution law of plant metabolites (chemical components), which will benefit from The chemical composition of the plant's genetic relationship.