Affiliation:
1. Center for Mitochondrial Biology and Medicine, The Key Laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering of Ministry of Education, School of Life Science and Technology, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, Shaanxi 710049, P. R. China
2. Frontier Institute of Science and Technology, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, Shaanxi 710054, P. R. China
Abstract
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) modernization has been proposed for many years, but the progress is still slow due to both ideological and technical obstacles. When I went to Japan in 1989, I found Japan has made a great progress on TCM by using modern technology. Therefore, I have studied a fine extract prepared from medicinal herbs (renamed Yi-Zhi-Yi-Shou, YZYS), a prescription of Dowager Cixi’s Yanling-Yishou-Dan of Qing Dynasty, with the current drug investigation strategies. I examined its antioxidant activity both in vitro and in vivo. The in-vitro studies found that YZYS possesses strong antioxidant capacity, such as scavenging various kinds of free radicals, and inhibits free radical-induced peroxidation of brain homogenate, microsomes, mitochondria, amino acids, deoxyribose and DNA. The in-vivo study with immobilization-induced emotional stress in rats, showed that YZYS effectively inhibits stress-induced stomach ulcers and oxidative damage in plasma and the brain. In addition, YZYS is shown to be non-toxic in both acute and chronic toxicity tests. These studies demonstrate that YZYS is a potent natural antioxidant and offer theoretical evidence for the beneficial effect of YZYS on health and brain functions, and that TCM prescriptions can be studied scientifically as modern medical drugs.
Publisher
World Scientific Pub Co Pte Lt