Natural chemical compound Database decoding Traditional Chinese medicine

natural chemicals isolated from traditional Chinese herb

The mysterious and peculiar reputation enjoyed by traditional Chinese medicine is largely attributable to its unique content: a soup of flowers, leaves, or roots that looks cloudy and bitter.

 Chinese scientists have launched a large-scale research project that uses the latest gene technology discoveries to decode the mysteries of the liquid. The "Plant chemistry suit", a research project jointly launched by the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica affiliated to the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Kunming Botanical Garden in Yunnan Province, aims to establish the largest database and sample storage place for some traditional Chinese medicine, which will become the largest database of natural chemical compounds in the world.

The researchers said that by 2020, the database would cover more than 8000 natural herbal plants and extract more than 15000 chemical compounds with a sample purity of more than 95%. China has abundant plant resources and occupies the third place in the world with advanced plants.  
However, even the most authoritative compendium of Materia Medica in China, written by the Ming Pharmacists (1518-1593), records only about 1000 types of plants of medicinal value. Chen Kai County, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said: "The use of modern medical theory to explain the treatment mechanism of traditional Chinese medicine, it is difficult to effectively control the effective ingredients of these drugs." Therefore, it is difficult to guarantee the quality and safety of traditional herbs.
 "It is very useful to designate which chemicals play an important role in disease treatment by establishing a natural chemical compound database of traditional Chinese medicine," Chen,  "which will make traditional Chinese medicine accurate, easy to use, safe, such as Western medicine. The database of natural chemical compounds is only part of the "Plant Chemistry Collection" project. Chinese scientists first focus on the prescription of Traditional Chinese medicine, then separate the drug compounds, and then use the genetic model of nearly 1000 kinds of experiments and choose to identify effective compounds and their treatment mechanisms.

Without the support of genetic technology, this commitment would be unthinkable. Chinese medicine is generally regarded as a kind of "multi-element " and "multi-objective" treatment, which is suitable for the research results of genetic technology in various medical fields.
The latest genetic technology findings suggest that most diseases are the result of multiple gene behavior.
The project extracts more than 1800 herbs and obtains more than 900 pure chemical compounds for treatment of common diseases such as tumours, cardiovascular disease and dementia. The establishment of the database will enhance China's ability to develop new drugs.