Available online 5 May 2015
Finding new sources from “using different plants as the same herb”: A case study of Huang-lian in Northwest Yunnan, China
Abstract
Ethnopharmacological relevance
Traditional
and local medicinal knowledge would be useful for finding
pharmaceutical resources. Ethnopharmacological methods, especially
quantitative analysis could help us to pre-screen herbs in field
studies. “Using different plants as the same herb” is common in both
traditional and local medicinal systems in China. In terms of medicine
safety, it is not best choice, for it would lead to difficulty in
controlling the quality, safety and efficacy of herbs. However, from the
perspective of finding new resources for pharmaceutical industry, it
would be beneficial. The usage of Huang-lian is one of the typical
examples of “using different plants as the same herb”. According to the
previous Phytochemical and Pharmacological studies, berberine is the
common effective compound of most of the species used as Huang-lian.
Recently, berberine and other effective compounds of Huang-lian have
gained much more attention and will become more popular in both
medicinal researches and pharmaceutical industry. In our preliminary
field work, we found that dozens of plant species might be used as
Huang-lian by local people in Northwest Yunnan, an area well known by
its rich biodiversity and culture diversity. These herbs might have
potential value for pharmaceutical industry, for example, it could be
used as the new resources to extract berberine and other effective
compounds. Due to this, it is very necessary to collect, identify,
document, and analyze the herbs used as Huang-lian in NW Yunnan. In the
present study, we focused on that how to use traditional and local
medicinal knowledge to find resources for pharmaceutical industry.
Material and methods
In
the field work, interviews and participative observation were used. In
the quantitative analysis of the local knowledge, Informant consensus
factor (Fic), Use value (UV) and Relative frequency of citation (RFC) were used.
Results and discussion
A
total of 230 key informants were interviewed and 29 plant species
belonging to 8 families and 11 genera used as Huang-lian were collected
in the study area. Diarrhoea had the highest value of Fic.xiana had the highest value of UV and RFC.
The main effective compounds of most of these species were related to
the protoberberine group of isoquinoline alkaloids, e.g. berberine,
jatrorrhizin and palmatine, according to the previous phytochemical
studies.
Conclusion
The range of
sources of Huang-lian were very wide in NW Yunnan. Treating diarrhoea
was the most common use of these species, most of which contained
berberine. Based on the results of quantitative analysis, M. duclouxiana
may had the greatest potential to future uses, e.g. as a resource for
pharmaceutical industry. In the present study, we did not discuss
whether the herbs used as Huang-lian could replace the standard
Huang-lian in traditional or local medicine or not, and we just wanted
to explore how this phenomenon could be used to find new resources for
pharmaceutical industry.
Graphical abstract
Chemical compounds studied in this article
- Protopine (PubChem CID: 4970);
- Dehydrocavidine (PubChem CID: 44559283);
- Thalictrifoline (PubChem CID: 335206);
- Coptisine (PubChem CID: 72322);
- Jatrorrhizine (PubChem CID: 72323);
- Palmatine (PubChem CID: 19009);
- Berberine (PubChem CID: 2353);
- Tetrandrine (PubChem CID: 73078);
- Columbamine (PubChem CID: 72310);
- Magnoflorine (PubChem CID: 73337)
Keywords
- Local herbs;
- Northwest Yunnan;
- Ethnobotanical Survey;
- Berberine;
- Huang-Lian
Copyright © 2015 Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.
