Polyphenolic acids are the widely occurring natural products in almost each herbal plant, among which rosmarinic acid (RA, C₁₈H₁₆O₈) is well-known, and is present in over 160 species belonging to many families, especially the Lamiaceae. Aside from this herbal ingredient, dozens of its natural derivatives have also been isolated and characterized from many natural plants. In recent years, with the increasing focus on the natural products as alternative treatments, a large number of pharmacological studies have been carried out to demonstrate the various biological activities of RA such as anti-inflammation, anti-oxidation, anti-diabetes, anti-virus, anti-tumor, neuroprotection, hepatoprotection, etc. In addition, investigations concerning its biosynthesis, extraction, analysis, clinical applications, and pharmacokinetics have also been performed. Although many achievements have been made in various research aspects, there still exist some problems or issues to be answered, especially its toxicity and bioavailability. Thus, we hope that in the case of natural products, the present review can not only provide a comprehensive understanding on RA covering its miscellaneous research fields, but also highlight some of the present issues and future perspectives worth investigating later, in order to help us utilize this polyphenolic acid more efficiently, widely, and safely.

Ligustri Lucidi Fructus (LLF), the fruit of Ligustrum lucidum Ait. (Oleaceae), has been used as a common herbal medicine in clinical practice in China for nearly 2000 years. In most cases, LLF is prescribed in decoctions in the form of processed products rather than crude drugs. In this study, an ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled with electrospray ionization-quadrupole-time of flight-mass spectrometry (UHPLC-ESI-Q-TOF-MS) method was established for rapid separation and identification of multiple constituents in the 80% methanol extract of processed-LLF. A total of 50 compounds (one phenylethanoid, seven phenylethanoid glycosides, seven flavonoids, 25 iridoids, nine triterpenoids and one cyclohexanecarboxylic acid) were either unambiguously identified or tentatively characterized with the aid of authentic standards or published data. Luteolin-7-O-rutinoside, oleoside and secologanoside were detected in LLF for the first time. This study enriches the chemical profiling of processed-LLF and could provide valuable information for the quality control and further investigation of processed-LLF and crude LLF.

The dried roots of Euphorbia kansui (kansui) have been used for centuries in China as a herbal medicine for edema, ascites, and asthma. The 95% ethanol extract showed a significant inhibition of cell proliferation against human normal cell lines L-O2 and GES-1. Bioassay-guided separation of the 95% ethanol extract from the roots of E. kansui led to the isolation of 12 diverse terpenoids whose structures were identified by ¹H, ¹³C NMR spectroscopy and ESI-MS as kansuinine A (1), kansuinine B (2), kansuinine C (3), kansuiphorin C (4), 3-O-(2'E,4'Z-decadienoyl)-20-O-acetylingenol (5), 3-O-(2'E,4'E-decadienoyl)-20-O-acetylingenol (6), 3-O-(2'E,4'Z-decadienoyl)-20-deoxyingenol (7), 3-O-benzoyl-20-deoxyingenol (8), 5-O-benzoyl-20-deoxyingenol (9), kansenone (10), epi-kansenone (11), euphol (12). All these 12 terpernoids were evaluated in vitro for cytotoxicity on L-O2 and GES-1 cell lines. Most ingenane-type diterpenoids and 8-ene-7-one triterpenoids (5–11) exhibited a relatively lower IC₅₀ value; therefore, these compounds had stronger cytotoxicity against human normal cell lines L-O2 and GES-1 with dose-dependent relationships. These results will be significantly helpful to reveal the mechanism of toxicity of kansui and to effectively guide safer clinical application of this herb.

Carbonized pollen grains of Typha (CPT) were widely used in clinical for antithrombosis, wound and bleeding in China. In order to ensure the role of drugs, it is very important to control the quality of drugs. However, there is a lack of monitoring methods in the process of charcoal preparation. To characterize the process of CPT, we used thermal analysis, scanning electron microscope (SEM), color measurement, Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR) and HPLC. In this study, 7 min was the optimal processing time and the heating process condition should be controlled under 272.35 ± 7.23 °C. This comprehensive strategy to depict the whole carbonizing process would provide new ideas for researches on quality control of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and processing theory of charcoal medicine.