• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.64 no.3
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• pp.245-251
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• 2021

Codonopsis lanceolata (Deoduk) was grown in East Asia, including Korea, China, Japan, and Russia, and the roots of C. lanceolata have been used as functional foods and traditional medicine to treat symptoms of cough, bronchitis, asthma, tuberculosis, and dyspepsia. The phytochemicals of C. lanceolata have been reported such as phenylpropanoids, polyacetylenes, saponins, and flavonoids that are involved in pharmacological effects such as anti-obesity, anti-inflammation, anti-tumor, anti-oxidant, and anti-microbial activities. Selecting marker substances of the main producing area by MS-based metabolomics analysis is important to ensure the beneficial effect of C. lanceolata without side-effects because differences in cultivated areas of plants were related not only to the safety of medicinal plants but also to changes in chemical composition and biological efficacy. In our present study, ultra-performance liquid chromatography quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry combined with multivariate statistical analysis was applied to recognize the main producing area of C. lanceolata in South Korea. As a result of Principal Component Analysis and loading plot analysis of three groups, Inje (Kangwon-do), Hoengseong (Kangwon-do), and Muju (Jeonlabuk-do), several secondary metabolites of C. lanceolata including tangshenoside I, lancemaside A, and lancemaside G, were suggested as potential marker substances to distinguish the place of main producing area of C. lanceolata.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.405-418
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• 2022

Simotang oral liquid (SMT) is a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) consisting of four natural plants and is used to alleviate gastrointestinal side effects after chemotherapy and functional dyspepsia (FD). However, the mechanism by which SMT helps cure these gastrointestinal diseases is still unknown. Here, we discovered that SMT could alleviate gastrointestinal side effects after chemotherapy by altering gut microbiota. C57BL/6J mice were treated with cisplatin (DDP) and SMT, and biological samples were collected. Pathological changes in the small intestine were observed, and the intestinal injury score was assessed. The expression levels of the inflammatory factors IL-1β and IL-6 and the adhesive factors Occludin and ZO-1 in mouse blood or small intestine tissue were also detected. Moreover, the gut microbiota was analyzed by high-throughput sequencing of 16S rRNA amplicons. SMT was found to effectively reduce gastrointestinal mucositis after DDP injection, which lowered inflammation and tightened the intestinal epithelial cells. Gut microbiota analysis showed that the abundance of the anti-inflammatory microbiota was downregulated and that the inflammatory microbiota was upregulated in DDP-treated mice. SMT upregulated anti-inflammatory and anticancer microbiota abundance, while the inflammatory microbiota was downregulated. An antibiotic cocktail (ABX) was also used to delete mice gut microbiota to test the importance of gut microbiota, and we found that SMT could not alleviate gastrointestinal mucositis after DDP injection, showing that gut microbiota might be an important mediator of SMT treatment. Our study provides evidence that SMT might moderate gastrointestinal mucositis after chemotherapy by altering gut microbiota.