• Herbal Formula Science
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.199-211
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• 2019

Objectives : Present study investigated the hepatoprotective effects of various combinations of lemon balm and dandelion (LD) leaf extract on carbon tetrachloride ($CCl_4$)-induced acute liver injury. Methods : Mice were orally treated with 200 mg/kg of LD extracts [1:1, 1:2, 1:4, 1:6, 1:8, 2:1, 4:1, 6:1, or 8:1 (weight : weight)] for 7 days, and then intraperitoneally injected with $CCl_4$ (0.5 mL/kg). Silymarin (100 mg/kg) was used as reference drug. Body weight gain, relative liver weight, serum biochemistry, histopathologic analyses, and hepatic antioxidant system were examined to elucidate the fittest combination ratio of LD extract. Results : All varying combinations of LD extract significantly increased body weight gain and decreased relative liver weight by $CCl_4$. In addition, LD extract reduced serum aspartate aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase. Histopathological analyses indicated that LD extract significantly decreased histological activity index score, degenerated hepatocytes, and infiltrated inflammatory cells induced by $CCl_4$. Moreover, LD extract reduced lipid peroxidation, and attenuated the reduction of hepatic glutathione, superoxide dismutase, and catalase by $CCl_4$. Although there were no statistical differences in body weight gain between silymarin- and LD extract-treated groups, administration of 1:1, 2:1, and 4:1 combination of LD extract exhibited more favorable hepatoprotective effects than silymarin. Especially, 2:1 combination of LD extract showed the most potent hepatoprotective effects. Conclusion : Of various combinations of LD extract tested, present results suggest that 2:1 combination of LD extract would be a promising herbal formulation to protect liver from oxidative stress.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.63-77
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• 2015

Objectives The combination extract of four kinds of herbs, Gastrodia elata, Liriope platyphylla, Dimocarpus longan, and Salvia miltiorrhiza, has shown to have memory improving effects in mice. The aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy and safety of the herbal mixture for improving working memory as well as microstructural changes in white matter integrity in individuals with subjective memory complaints. Methods Seventy-five individuals with subjective memory complaints were assigned to receive either placebo (n = 15) or herbal mixture (low-dose group, n = 30 and high-dose group, n = 30) supplementation in an 8-week, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial. Changes in working memory performance and fractional anisotropy (FA) values reflecting white matter integrity from baseline to 8-week endpoint were assessed. Results The herbal mixture group showed an increase in working memory performance compared to the placebo group (p for interaction = 0.001). In addition, the herbal mixture group showed an increase in FA values in the temporo-parietal regions (corrected p < 0.05), which are crucially involved in working memory function and are among the most affected regions in patients with cognitive impairments. Conclusions Findings from this study indicate that the herbal mixture may be a promising therapeutic option for individuals with subjective memory complaints.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.122-130
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• 2011

Objectives: This study was designed to investigate the effect of herbal extract medicines for inpatients with fever symptoms in an oriental medicine hospital. Methods: Medical records of inpatients who experienced over $38^{\circ}C$ of fever from July 2010 to August 2011 has been requested with deleted personal identifiable information. The requested data were analyzed by patients' general characteristics, administrated western/herbal medicines, and changes in the body temperature of four administration groups (group 1, herbal extract medicine only; group 2, western medication(antibiotics/antipyretics) only; group 3, combination of herbal extract medicine and western medication; group 4, no medication control). The SPSS 19.0 was used for statistical analysis and p-value of less than 0.05 was regarded significant. Results: The body temperature has significantly dropped over time in the herbal extract medicine only group (p<0.001) along with the antibiotics/antipyretics only group. When both treatments were combined, stronger antipyretic effect was shown compared to the sole treatment of herbal extract medicine or antibiotics/antipyretics. Conclusion: The use of herbal extract medicines may be effective in alleviation of fever.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.1081-1086
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• 2007

This study was performed to investigate the medicinal effects of the herbal combination extracts-2 (HCE-2), consisting of Artemisia capillaris Thunb., Lonicera japonica Thunb., Prunella vulgaris var. lilacina, and Hovenia dulcis Thunb. on the alcohol-induced liver injury in rats. The rats were randomly divided into four groups: normal group (n =6), non-treated control group (n =6), saline-treated group (n =6) and the herbal combination extract (HCE-2)-treated group (n =6). The rats in the alcohol-loaded groups were orally administered with ethanol at a daily dose of 4 g/kg-body weight for 5 weeks. Thirty minutes before the ethanol injection, saline or herbal combination extracts was administered by using a gastrogavage. Blood and liver tissue samples were taken out from the hearts and livers of the rats, respectively, on 15th and 38th days. The activities of serum aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) were measured using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). We also investigated the protective effect of the herbal combination extracts by Hematoxylin-Eosin staining on histological sections of rat liver. In this study, the oral administration of the herbal combination extracts significantly reduced the serum levels of AST and ALT, which had been raised by alcohol-induced liver injury. Histological analysis and apparent observation of liver also showed the preventive effect of the herbal combination extracts in a chronic alcohol-induced rat model. Theses results revealed that the herbal combination extracts effectively prevented hepatic damage consequent to the chronic exposure to repetitive administration of ethanol and could be used as a primary resource of a health beverage or herbal medicine, alleviating the alcohol-induced hepatic injury and hangover symptoms.

• Natural Product Sciences
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.108-112
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• 2017

Anti-inflammatory, anti-arthritic and analgesic activity of each herbal extract, which is extracted from Bacopa monnieriis, Cassia fistula and Phyllanthus polyphyllus, respectively. The treatment of herbal extract exhibited anti-inflammatory effect as a dose-dependent manner, from 1.25 mg/kg to 12.5 mg/kg, in acute inflammatory models (carrageen and egg-albumin induced rat hind paw edema). It also elicited significant anti-inflammatory activity in chronic inflammatory models (cotton pellet granuloma and Freund's adjuvant induced polyarthritis in rat). In cotton pellet granuloma test, the extract exhibited the inhibitory effect of 23 and 57% at the dose of 6.25 and 12.5 mg/kg, respectively. In Freund's adjuvant induced model, the treatment of the extract of 1.25, 6.25 and 12.5 mg/kg showed the inhibitory effect of 23, 56 and 66% at 8 days, respectively. In the acetic acid-induced model, the extract significantly reduced abdominal writhing in mice when compared to the control group, reducing the mean number of writhing from $41{\pm}2$ in the control group to $17{\pm}3$ and $15{\pm}2$ at the dose of 6.25 and 12.5 mg/kg. From these experiments, the extract, which was extracted from the combination of Bacopa monnieriis, Cassia fistula and Phyllanthus polyphyllus, (w/w/w = 1/2/1) is surprisingly found a significant analgesic and anti-inflammatory activity.

• Journal of Korean Medical classics
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.67-81
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• 2020

Objectives : This research aims to suggest a automatic data extract method for herbal formula combinations from medical classics' texts. Methods : This research was carried out by using Access of Microsoft Office 365 in Windows 10 of Microsoft. The subject text for extraction was 『Euijongsonik』. Using data sets of herb and dosage terminology, herbal medicinals and their dosages were extracted. Afterwards, using the position value of the character string, the formula combinations were automatically extracted. Results :The PC environment of this research was Intel Core i7-1065G7 CPU 1.30GHz, with 8GB of RAM and a Windows 10 64bit operation system. Out of 6,115 verses, 19,277 herb-dosage combinations were extracted. Conclusions : In this research, it was demonstrated that in the case of classical texts that are available as data, knowledge on herbal medicine could be extracted without human or material resources. This suggests an applicability of classical text knowledge to clinical practice.

• Herbal Formula Science
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.121-132
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• 2010

Inflammatory reaction is characterized by over-production of inflammatory mediators due to an up-regulation of inflammatory pathways, which produce pro-inflammatory mediators, such as interleukin-1beta (IL-$1{\beta}$), IL-6, tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-$\alpha$), prostaglantin $E_2$ ($PGE_2$), and nitric oxide (NO) in U937 cells. We investigate the anti-inflammatory effects of water extracts from Lonicerae Flos and Scutellariae Radix in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated U937 cells. Each extract suppressed the production of inflammatory mediators (NO, IL-$1{\beta}$, TNF-$\alpha$, and $PGE_2$) and the expression of inducible NO synthase and cyclooxygenase-2 in LPS- stimulated U937 cells in a dose-dependent manner. These suppressive effects were synergistically increased by their combination. Their combination extract also inhibited NF-${\kappa}B$-DNA complex of NF-${\kappa}B$ binding activity and translocation of NF-${\kappa}B$ from cytosol to nucleus. These results suggest that the combination of water-extractable components of Lonicerae Flos and Scutellariae Radix may be useful for therapeutic drugs against inflammatory immune diseases, probably by suppressing the production of inflammatory mediators.

• Herbal Formula Science
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.99-111
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• 2009

Rheumatoid arthritis is characterized by focal loss of cartilage due to an up-regulation of inflammatory pathways, which produce pro-inflammatory mediators, such as interleukin-1(IL-1), tumour necrosis factor alpha($TNF-\alpha$), prostaglantin, and nitric oxide(NO). We investigated the anti-arthritic effects of water extracts from Pellodendri cortex and Atractylodis rhizoma in vitro and in vivo. Each extract suppressed the production of inflammatory mediators(NO, $IL-1\beta$, $TNF-\alpha$, and prostaglandin $E_2$) and the expression of inducible NO synthase and cyclooxygenase-2 in lipopolysaccharide-stimulated macrophages in a dose-dependent manner. These suppressive effects were synergistically increased by their combination. The same results were also observed in the rat osteoblast sarcoma cell line ROS17/2.8 stimulated with $IL-1\beta$, $IFN-\gamma,$ and $TNF-\alpha$. Moreover, the combination of these water extracts significantly suppressed collagen-induced mouse arthritis. These results suggest that the combination of water-extractable components of Pellodendri cortex and Atractylodis rhizoma may be useful for therapeutic drugs against rheumatoid arthritis, probably by suppressing the production of inflammatory mediators.

• Herbal Formula Science
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.167-182
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• 2010

Cervi parvum cornu (Deer Antler) and Carthami tinctorii fructus (Also known as Carthami seed) are widely used for treating osteoporosis and rheumatoid arthritis. In this study, We found out that the water extract of Cervi parvum cornu(WECPC), Carthami tinctorii fructus(WECTF) and their combination have effects of suppressing the RANKL-induced osteoclast differentiation. We assayed mRNA expression levels of NFATc1, c-Fos, TRAP and GAPDHS from bone marrow macrophages(BMMs) by means of RT-PCR. Similarly, the protein expression levels of NFATc1, c-Fos, MAPKs and $\beta$-actin in cell lysates were analyzed by means of Western blotting. then we determined the anti-osteoporotic effects of WECPC, WECTF and their combination using Lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced bone-loss mouse. WECPC, WECTF and their combination showed remarkable inhibition on RANKL-treated osteoclast differentiation without cytotoxicity. WECPC suppressed degradation of I-${\kappa}B$. WECPC, WECTF and their combination down-regulated the induction of c-Fos and NFATc1 by RANKL. Lastly, in vivo data showed that WECPC, WECTF and their combination rescued the bone erosion by LPS treatment. Thus, these results demonstrate that WECPC, WECTF and their combination can be efficacious remedies for bone-loss diseases such as osteoporosis and rheumatoid arthritis.

• Herbal Formula Science
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.53-63
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• 2019

Objectives : In this study, we investigated the combination effects of Cinnamomi cortex Ethanol Extract (CcEE) and hyperthermia in the human AGS gastric cancer cell line. Methods : AGS cells were treated with the indicated concentrations of CcEE (0, 50 or $60{\mu}g/mL$) for 1h prior to hyperthermia. And then incubated for a further 30 min at the indicated temperatures (37, 42 or $43^{\circ}C$) in a humidified incubator containing 5% $CO_2$ or a thermostatically controlled water bath for hyperthermia. The cell viability was measured by MTT assay, Morphology assay and Trypan blue assay. To investigate the possible molecular signaling pathways, the activation of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) proteins (ERK, p38 and JNK) and expression of various anti-apoptotic proteins such as Caspase-3, Caspase-9, p53, Cyclin D1 and MMP-2 were assessed by Western blot analysis. In addition, Annexin V and 7-amino-actinomycin D (7-AAD) staining was performed to examine the apoptotic mechanism. Results : Combination of CcEE with hyperthermia effectively suppressed the cell viability and changed cellmorphology compared with CcEE or hyperthermia treatment alone. Combined treatment also abated the expression of Caspase-3, Caspase-9, Cyclin D1 and MMP-2. Whereas, the expression level of p53 was up-regulated by co-treatment. Moreover, combination treatment enhanced phosphorylation of ERK, p38 and JNK. In addition, this combination increased anti-cancer effect by inducing cell death through the apoptosis. Conclusions : Taken together, all these findings suggest that the combination treatment with CcEE and hyperthermia may have therapeutic potential as a promising approach to patients with stomach cancer.