A characteristic pharmacological action of 'Yang-invigorating' Chinese tonifying herbs

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Phytomedicine. 2006 Apr 26; [Epub ahead of print]

 

 

A characteristic pharmacological action of 'Yang-invigorating' Chinese

tonifying herbs: Enhancement of myocardial ATP-generation capacity.

 

Ko KM, Leon TY, Mak DH, Chiu PY, Du Y, Poon MK.

 

Department of Biochemistry, The Hong Kong University of Science & Technology

Clear Water Bay, Hong Kong SAR, China.

 

In order to investigate the pharmacological basis of 'Yang-invigorating'

action, the effect of oral treatment with the methanolic extract of

Yang-invigorating' herbs on ATP-generation capacity was examined, using

heart homogenates prepared from herb-pretreated mice. Tonifying (i.e.,

health-promoting) herbs of other functional categories were also included

for comparison. The results indicated that 'Yang-invigorating' Chinese

tonifying herbs could invariably enhance myocardial ATP-generation capacity,

with the extent of stimulation varying among the herbs. In contrast,

Yin-nourishing' herbs either did not stimulate or even decreased myocardial

ATP-generation capacity. While 'Qi-invigorating' herbs produced variable

effects on myocardial ATP-generation capacity, most of the 'blood-enriching'

herbs did not cause any significant changes. The results obtained from

studies using myocardial mitochondrial fractions isolated from

herb-pretreated mice suggest that 'Yang-invigorating' herbs might speed up

ATP generation by increasing mitochondrial electron transport. The ensemble

of results has provided evidence for the first time to support the

pharmacological basis of 'Yang invigoration' in Chinese medicine.

 

PMID: 16647252 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]