Yu zhu

Hot water extracts were silylated and quantified by GC with flame ionisation detection and mass spectrometry, with a limit of detection of 2.9 micrograms/mL. Azetidine-2-carboxylic acid content was 5.39 plus or minus 1.67 mg/g in 29 samples of Polygonatum sibiricum and significantly higher at 9.23 plus or minus 3.67 mg/g in 20 samples of Polygonatum odoratum. The authors frame it as a potent toxin misincorporated into protein in place of proline, and quantify it precisely because these rhizomes are used as food and tea supplements. This is the single most useful paper for keeping the two species distinct, and it shows Yu Zhu is the higher-exposure one.

Reviews the distribution, toxicity and protein-level consequences of the compound first isolated from liliaceous plants in 1955. Its exchange for proline during protein synthesis is responsible for its teratogenic effects; tRNA synthetases in some producer plants discriminate against it, but mammalian cells generally do not and cell proof-reading does not remove it. Collagen and myelin basic protein are the proteins discussed in detail, and the authors set out but do not establish a hypothesis linking dietary exposure to multiple sclerosis, explicitly listing knowledge gaps that must be closed before human risk can be judged. The teratogenicity is the settled part; the multiple sclerosis link is not.

A novel polysaccharide, YZ-2, of molecular weight 5345.3 Da and composed of alpha-mannopyranose, alpha-glucopyranose and alpha-galactopyranose residues without a triple-helix conformation, was isolated from Polygonatum odoratum (Mill.) Druce and tested in mice made type 2 diabetic by low-dose streptozotocin plus high-fat diet. It significantly reduced fasting blood glucose, serum total cholesterol, triglycerides, LDL cholesterol and fasting insulin, improved glucose tolerance, and raised hepatic superoxide dismutase, catalase and glutathione. The species is named explicitly, so this evidence belongs to Yu Zhu and not to Huang Jing.

UHPLC-Q-TOF/MS identified 62 compounds in the rhizome and screened 13 potential markers separating the Xiangyuzhu and Guanyuzhu commercial grades, and UHPLC with charged aerosol detection was validated for absolute quantification of polygodoraside G (13.33 to 236.24 micrograms/g), polygonatumoside F (50.55 to 545.04 micrograms/g) and timosaponin H1 (13.34 to 407.83 micrograms/g). The timosaponin H1 to polygodoraside G ratio distinguishes the grades. The practical message for prescribers is the size of the range: marker content varies by an order of magnitude across material sold under the same name.

ITS2 and psbA-trnH barcoding was applied to Polygonatum samples from 39 regions of China and validated against phylogeny-based and character-based methods, distinguishing all samples accurately. The paper documents why the method was needed: rhizome morphology within the genus is too similar and too altered by growth conditions and processing to separate Huangjing from Yuzhu reliably, and Polygonatum prattii and Disporopsis fuscopicta circulate as substitutes for Rhizoma Polygonati Odorati.

Fifteen steroidal glycosides, three homoisoflavanones and four cinnamic acid derivatives were isolated from the roots, eight of them new and named polygodorasides A to G. Two compounds inhibited influenza A virus in vitro, one steroidal glycoside with an IC50 of 14.30 micromolar, better than the ribavirin control at 28.4 micromolar, and one homoisoflavanone at 49.70 micromolar. This is isolated-compound in vitro activity and does not establish antiviral efficacy for the decoction.

Network pharmacology identified 107 shared targets between the herb and polycystic ovary syndrome, pointing to inflammation, LPS response and metabolic pathways. In letrozole-induced PCOS rats challenged with lipopolysaccharide, the extract restored corpora lutea numbers, reduced cystic follicles, improved glucose regulation and lowered ovarian IL-1beta and TNF-alpha. The species is named explicitly. Set this against the azetidine-2-carboxylic acid content: an indication in women of reproductive age is precisely where the teratogenic constituent matters most.

The mannose-binding lectin from this species induced both apoptosis and autophagy in A549 lung cancer cells, with Akt acting as the switch between the two outcomes. A companion study found the same lectin acting through the EGFR-mediated Ras-Raf-MEK-ERK pathway in MCF-7 breast cancer cells. Both are cell-line experiments with an isolated protein; a lectin of this size would be denatured by decoction and digested if swallowed, so these findings characterise the molecule rather than the drug.