Hongxun Tao

Jiangsu University · School of Food and Biological Engineering

Background: Monitoring target engagement at various stages of drug development is essential for natural product (NP)-based drug discovery and development. The cellular thermal shift assay (CETSA) developed in 2013 is a novel, broadly applicable, label-free biophysical assay based on the principle of ligand-induced thermal stabilization of target p...

Special Issue Information Dear Colleagues, Microorganisms are a promising source of many natural products, and have proven their value in nutrition, agriculture and healthcare. These products are largely involved in bioactivities as antimicrobial agents, antiparasitic agents, antitumor, enzyme inhibitors, immunosuppressives, etc. For these reasons...

Special Issue Information Dear Colleagues, This Special Issue will advance knowledge and educate scholars in gels through cutting-edge research and innovative ideas related to the design, characterization, and application of colloidal systems in science and technology. Our primary goal is to generate, disseminate, and preserve knowledge through p...

The Lycium genus, perennial herbs of the Solanaceae family, has been an important source of medicines and nutrient supplements for thousands of years in China, where seven species and three varieties are cultivated. Among these, Lycium barbarum L. and Lycium chinense Mill., two "superfoods", together with Lycium ruthenicum Murr, have been extensive...

In‐depth research on the mechanism of food nutrition and bioactivity has always been a shortcoming. The main function of the food itself is to meet the nutritional needs of the human body, not the therapeutic effect. Therefore, its relatively modest biological activity makes it difficult to study in general pharmacological models. With the populari...

Goal: Chronic diseases refer to diseases that do not constitute contagion, have a long course of disease, and usually develop slowly. Chronic diseases such as heart disease, stroke, cancer, chronic respiratory disease, inflammatory bowel disease and diabetes are by far the leading causes of death in the world, accounting for more than 60% of all de...

Background: Oxidation is a major problem for oil & fats, which can be mitigated by antioxidants. Rutin has excellent antioxidant activity, but its poor lipid solubility greatly limits its practical application. In this study, an efficient enzymatic synthesis route of lipophilic rutin ester was established using oleic acid as an acyl donor, and the...

There are about 20 species of Porana Burm. f. worldwide in tropical and subtropical Asia, Africa and neighboring islands, Oceania, and the Americas. In China, India, and other places, this genus enjoys a wealth of experience in folk applications. Nevertheless, the chemical composition of only five species has been reported, and 59 compounds have be...

Nanoemulsions are a promising approach for the targeted delivery and precise release of bioactive ingredients in food or pharmaceuticals. Nevertheless, there are some limitations for certain applications because they are susceptible to break down through physical instability mechanisms. In this study, we explored an effective, rapid, and green stra...

Reviews and original research on related topics are welcome. The use of highly purified, chemically characterized compounds is acceptable. Studies on extracts with well-defined chemical bases are also considered. Purely in silico studies on supposed mechanisms of supposed actions of crude extracts and/or mixtures are generally not accepted since th...

To elucidate the slower digestion rate of buckwheat starch in noodles-matrix, the digestion kinetics of Tartary (TBN) and common (CBN) buckwheat starch reconstituted noodles as well as wheat starch reconstituted noodles (WSN) were compared using a simulated oral-gastric-intestinal in vitro digestion. The swelling degree of starch in cooked noodles...

To elucidate the lower digestibility of buckwheat starch-based foods, tartary buckwheat starch (TBS) and common buckwheat starch (CBS) were treated by different hydrothermal temperatures, cooling, lyophilization and micronization, and wheat starch (WS) used as reference. The in vitro digestibility, thermodynamic properties, particle-size distributi...

Background: Porana sinensis Hemsl. has been widely used as a substitute for Erycibes Caulis to treat rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). However, little is known about the active ingredients and pharmacological mechanisms that mediate the action of P. sinensis against RA. Methods: The compounds contained in P. sinens...

Background and purpose: Macrophage infiltration and activation is a critical step during acute colitis. Redox-mediated Nlrp3 inflammasome activation in macrophages plays a critical role in mediating colonic inflammatory responses. Rhein isolated from the rhizome of rhubarb exhibits anti-inflammatory effects in various diseases. However, its role i...

Sigesbeckiae Herba is a traditional Chinese herbal medicine and has been used for inflammatory diseases with a long history. The current official plant origins of Sigesbeckiae Herba include Sigesbeckia orientalis L. (SO), S. pubescens Markino (SP) and S. glabrescens Markino (SG). In this work, a systemic review about the scientific work for medicin...

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is accounting for over 50% of all cases of dementia worldwide. Currently, there are no effective treatments available for AD. Plant-based medications and dietary interventions have attracted increasing research interest as an alternative strategy for the protection and treatment of AD. Thereby, this review aims to summarize...

Erycibes are members of the Convolvulaceae family, including more than 10 species worldwide that are distributed in tropical Asia. Some Erycibes species have long been used as traditional remedies for rheumatoid arthritis, fever, hepatitis, and liver injury in China and Thailand. A total of 152 compounds from Erycibes plants have been isolated and...

Currently, the world is challenged by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Epidemiologists and researchers worldwide are invariably trying to understand and combat this precarious new disease. Scrutinizing available drug options and developing potential new drugs are urgent needs to subdue this pandemic. Several intervention strategies...

Due to the increasing prevalence of cancer year by year, and the complexity and refractory nature of the disease itself, it is required to constantly innovate the development of new cancer treatment schemes. At the same time, the understanding of cancers has deepened, from the use of chemotherapy regimens with high toxicity and side effects, to the...

Low-grade inflammation is usually defined as the chronic production and a low-grade state of inflammatory factors, it often does not have symptoms, and has been associated with neurodegenerative disease, obesity, and diabetes. Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFAs) are the precursors of many anti-inflammatory metabolites, such as resolvins...

Background The combination of Radix Paeoniae Alba (RPA) and Rhizoma Atractylodis Macrocephalae (RAM) has long been used as a classic herb pair for the treatment of gynecologic and gastrointestinal diseases, but the underlying mechanisms of the herb pair remain unknown. This study aims to explore the anti-inflammatory potentials of RPA–RAM herb pair...

Description of the back cover image: The cover image is based on the Review Article Rhodiola species: A comprehensive review of traditional use, phytochemistry, pharmacology, toxicity, and clinical study by Hongxun Tao et al., https://doi.org/10.1002/med.21564. Cover image © Hongxun Tao, Xu Wu, Shengpeng Wang, Prof. Yitao Wang.

Background: Sigesbeckia glabrescens Makino (SG) is one of the important plant origins of Sigesbeckiae herba and has been widely used for the treatment of chronic inflammatory diseases in China. However, the underlying anti-inflammatory mechanism of SG is rarely investigated and reported. There are more than 40 kinds of chemical constituents in SG,...

Rhodiola species, belonging to the family Crassulaceae, have long been used as an adaptogen, tonic, antidepressant, and antistress medicine or functional food in Asia and Europe. Due to the valuable application, the growing demand of Rhodiola species has led to a rapid decrease in resource content. This review aims to summarize the integrated resea...

Ethnopharmacological relevance: Siegesbeckiae Herba (SH) is a traditional anti-rheumatic herbal medicine in China. The SH-derived product is also the first licensed traditional herbal medicinal product for management of rheumatism-induced joint and muscle pain in United Kingdom. Officially, the authenticated plant origins by the current Chinese Ph...

Due to the ability of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) to induce cancer cell apoptosis selectively, TRAIL has attracted significant interest in the treatment of cancer. However, although TRAIL triggers apoptosis in a broad range of cancer cells, most primary cancers are often intrinsically TRAIL-resistant, or ac...

The plant origin is one of the most important factors for the quality control of traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs) and highly affected on their safety and effectiveness in clinical applications. Multi-origin has been widely observed for many TCMs. Siegesbeckiae Herba (SH) is a traditional anti-rheumatic TCM which is originated from the plants of...

Introduction: The increasing popularity of traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs) necessitates rapid and reliable methods for controlling their quality. Direct analysis in real-time mass spectrometry (DART-MS) represents a novel approach to analysing TCMs. Objective: To develop a quick and reliable method of identifying TCMs with coumarins as prim...

Curcuma, a valuable genus in the family Zingiberaceae, includes approximately 110 species. These plants are native to Southeast Asia and are extensively cultivated in India, China, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Peru, Australia, and the West Indies. The plants have long been used in folk medicine to treat stomach ailments, stimulate digestion, and protect t...

A traditional external standard method using high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with evaporative light scattering detection has been developed for fast and accurate determination of seven platycosides in Platycodi Radix. However, inevitable difficulties in reference standards preparation process, which are quite costly and time consumin...

A high-throughput superoxide anion radical (O2•-) scavenging capacity assay based on the xanthine oxidase/xanthine reaction system was developed and validated in the present study. The reaction conditions including detection wavelength, concentrations of reactant components, reaction temperature, reaction time, pH, terminator reagent, and sample di...

As a final step of the purine metabolism process, xanthine oxidase catalyses the oxidation of hypoxanthine and xanthine into uric acid. Our research has demonstrated that Erycibe obtusifolia has xanthine oxidase inhibitory properties. The purpose of this paper is to describe a new strategy based on a combination of multiple mass spectrometric platf...

A combinative method using overpressured layer chromatography (OPLC) and TLC bioautography against O2 (•-) was developed to separate antioxidants from Glehnia littoralis roots. Through target-directed isolation by the TLC bioautographic method, seven compounds including five antioxidants were rapidly isolated by OPLC and identified as 1-linoloyl-3-...