In today's world, due to the monopoly and lack of advanced medical resources, plants with pharmacological properties have become the main medical resources in developing countries. This field is called traditional medicine, indigenous medicine or folk medicine. According to the WHO definition, this technology is based on typical theories of various treatment situations, such as empirical knowledge, skills and practices, and is generally applicable to the prevention, diagnosis, improvement or treatment of various diseases. Among them, the branch of "science of interactions between people and plants" has received more and more widespread attention. According to in-depth research on ethnobotany, many natural compounds have good pharmacological activities, such as antioxidant activity, anti-inflammatory activity and anti-inflammatory activity. Viral activity, etc., so they can be designed to a certain extent into anti-inflammatory drugs, analgesics, anti-spasmodics, anti-diabetic drugs, anti-viral drugs and anti-cancer drugs.
The main component of the bitter taste in coptis is berberine, which is berberine hydrochloride. This is an isoquinoline alkaloid distributed in various natural herbs. It exists in Coptis chinensis in the form of hydrochloride (berberine hydrochloride). Research has found that this compound can be used to treat tumors, hepatitis, and cardiovascular diseases. , hypertension, inflammation, bacterial and viral infections, diarrhea, treatment of diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and arthritis.
The History of Berberine Hydrochloride Powder
Berberine Hydrochloride powder was first discovered in the pre-Qin period. With the further deepening of pharmacological research, the efficacy of coptis has been recorded in detail in the "Shen Nong's Materia Medica" of the Han Dynasty in China. This book is the earliest existing traditional Chinese medicine book. It is said that it originated from Shennong's family. , compiled into a book between 25 and 220 AD during the Eastern Han Dynasty. Its single crystal structure was first analyzed from an extract isolated from Hydrastiscanadensis in 1917.
The Medicinal Purposes of berberine hcl powder
1. Antioxidant Effect
Under normal circumstances, the body maintains a balance between antioxidants and pro-oxidants. Oxidative stress is a harmful process that may be an important mediator of damage to cellular structures, thereby inducing various disease states such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, neurological diseases, and diabetes. Overproduction of reactive oxygen species (ROS), most commonly through overstimulation of NADPH by cytokines or through the mitochondrial electron transport chain and xanthine oxidase, can lead to oxidative stress. Experiments have shown that berberine metabolites and berberine show excellent -OH scavenging activity, and their effects are roughly equivalent to the powerful antioxidant vitamin C. The increase in SOD (superoxide dismutase) activity and the decrease in MDA (a marker of lipid peroxidation) levels can be monitored by administering berberine to diabetic model rats [1]. Further results showed that the scavenging activity of berberine is closely related to its ferrous ion chelating activity, and the C-9 hydroxyl group of berberine is an essential part.
2. Antitumor Effect
There have been numerous reports on the anti-cancer effects of berberine. Various studies in recent years have shown that berberine is effective in the adjuvant treatment of ovarian cancer, endometrial cancer, cervical cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer, colorectal cancer, kidney cancer, It is of great significance in the treatment of serious cancer diseases such as bladder cancer and prostate cancer. Berberine can inhibit the proliferation of tumor cells by interacting with various targets and mechanisms. It can change the expression of oncogenes and carcinogenesis-related genes to regulate the activity of related enzymes and inhibit proliferation.
3. Cardiovascular Effect
Berberine hcl powder plays a pivotal role in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases and has an extremely wide range of applications. Berberine achieves the purpose of anti-arrhythmia by reducing the incidence of premature ventricular contractions and inhibiting the occurrence of ventricular tachycardia. Second, dyslipidemia is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease and is characterized by increased levels of total cholesterol, triglycerides, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL), and decreased levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL), whereas berberine The stability of these indicators can be maintained extremely well. Long-term hyperlipidemia is an important cause of atherosclerotic plaque formation. It has been reported that berberine affects LDL receptors in liver cells to reduce human serum cholesterol levels in hepatocytes. Not only that, berberine has positive inotropic effects and has been used to treat congestive heart failure.
The Future Development of Berberine Hydrochloride Powder
Although berberine hcl powder has been widely used in clinical practice, one disadvantage that cannot be ignored is that it belongs to BCS class II drugs and has poor water solubility, which is not conducive to patient absorption. Therefore, how to develop suitable pharmaceuticals is currently a problem. Problems to be solved.
The solution commonly used in pharmacy to increase water solubility is usually to add a large amount of water-soluble excipients, but the problems that come with it are reduced dosage flexibility and patient compliance. Therefore, a more reasonable way is needed for drug bioavailability. degree of improvement. Commonly used methods include amorphous dispersions, pharmaceutical salts and drug co-crystals, but amorphous usually still requires excipients to maintain their stability, while the applicability of salts is generally applicable to drugs with ionizable groups. In contrast, the drug eutectic shows its superiority: simple process, low cost, and excellent effect.
There are two main types of existing drug co-crystal designs for berberine hydrochloride. One is to form a co-crystal with acid ligands, and the other is to form a co-crystal with flavonoids. The former has a greater improvement in bioavailability, but whether the ligand can be used for long-term clinical use remains to be verified. While the co-crystal design with flavonoids does not have as good a bioavailability improvement as the former, it is cleverly designed through crystal engineering. The method of improves the combination of two small molecule drugs, which can jointly improve the efficacy of both. It is a relatively successful method of improving physical and chemical properties.
Picture source:《Two Cocrystals of Berberine Chloride with Myricetin and Dihydromyricetin: Crystal Structures, Characterization, and Antitumor Activities》,doi: 10.1021/acs.cgd.9b00939)
Nowadays, Berberine Hydrochloride Powder can be synthesized artificially and modified through crystal engineering methods with low cost and advanced technology. With the development of medical research and the deepening of chemical research,berberine hydrochloride will surely show more medicinal properties. Use effects. On the one hand, berberine hydrochloride has not only achieved remarkable results in traditional pharmacological research on antibacterial, antiviral, anti-inflammatory, anti-tumor, anti-diabetic, and treatment of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, but its crystal engineering design and morphological analysis have also Widespread concern. Due to its remarkable curative effect and low side effects, it has great potential in clinical application and has broad prospects. With the development of cell biology, the pharmacological mechanism of berberine will be elucidated from the cellular level to the molecular and target level, providing more theoretical basis for its clinical application.