Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) evolved through thousands of years of practice and was popular not only among the Chinese population, but also most countries in the world. Blumea balsamifera (L.) DC. as a traditional treatment for wound healing in Li Nationality Medicine has a long history of nearly 2000 years. This study was to evaluate the effects of total flavonoids from Blumea balsamifera (L.) DC. on skin excisional wound on the back of Sprague-Dawley rats, reveal its chemical constitution, and postulate its action mechanism. The rats were divided into five groups and the model groups were treated with 30% glycerol, the positive control groups with Jing Wan Hong (JWH) ointment, and three treatment groups with high dose (2.52 g·kg⁻¹), medium dose (1.26 g·kg⁻¹), and low dose (0.63 g·kg⁻¹) of total flavonoids from B. balsamifera. During 10 consecutive days of treatment, the therapeutic effects of rates were evaluated. On day 1, day 3, day 5, day 7, and day 10 after treatment, skin samples were taken from all the rats for further study. Significant increases of granulation tissue, fibroblast, and capillary vessel proliferation were observed at day 7 in the high dose and positive control groups, compared with the model group, with the method of 4% paraformaldehyde for histopathological examination and immunofluorescence staining. To reveal the action mechanisms of total flavonoids on wound healing, the levels of CD68, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), transforming growth factor-β₁ (TGF-β₁), and hydroxyproline were measured at different days. Results showed that total flavonoids had significant effects on rat skin excisional wound healing compared with controls, especially high dose ones (p < 0.05). Furthermore, the total flavonoid extract was investigated phytochemically, and twenty-seven compounds were identified from the total flavonoid sample by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry/diode array detector (UPLC-Q-TOF-MS/DAD), including 16 flavonoid aglucons, five flavonoid glycosides (main peaks in chromatogram), five chlorogenic acid analogs, and 1 coumarin. Reports show that flavonoid glycoside possesses therapeutic effects of curing wounds by inducing neovascularization, and chlorogenic acid also has anti-inflammatory and wound healing activities; we postulated that all the ingredients in total flavonoids sample maybe exert a synergetic effect on wound curing. Accompanied with detection of four growth factors, the upregulation of these key growth factors may be the mechanism of therapeutic activities of total flavonoids. The present study confirmed undoubtedly that flavonoids were the main active constituents that contribute to excisional wound healing, and suggested its action mechanism of improving expression levels of growth factors at different healing phases.

Basil seed gum (BSG) is a new hydrophilic colloid of natural plant origin. Extracted from basil seeds, it possesses excellent functional characteristics in terms of emulsification, rheology, gelation, stability, and adsorption, which are just as favorable as those of certain commercial gums. Besides, BSG has been widely used in food, medicine, industry, and many other fields for its physiological functions of weight reduction, detoxification, and control of blood sugar and cholesterol as a good dietary fiber. In this paper, we analyzed and discussed the extraction procedures, composition structures, functional characteristics, and modification strategies of BSG. In addition, we summarized the latest research on the applications of BSG in different industries to provide theoretical references for the high-value processing and utilization of BSG.

The ecological restoration techniques that combine grazing, sand barriers with willows, fertilization, artificial planting, and continuous management are increasingly adopted in the management of flowing sandy land in high-altitude and cold regions. However, few studies have focused on the long-term ecological restoration effects of such technologies. This study systematically compared the vegetation and soil characteristics under different ecological restoration durations (0 (CK), 3 (F1), 14 (F2), 26 (F3), and 46 (F4) years) in the alpine sandy land of northwest Sichuan. The results showed that, with the increase of ecological restoration durations, (1) the aboveground and underground biomass of plants, and species number significantly increased, while the shannon-wiener index, margalef index, and simpson index dramatically decreased; (2) in the early stage of ecological restoration (0–3 yr), Cyperaceae accounted for the main groups, while in the late stage of ecological restoration (14–46 yr), Leguminosae and Forb groups predominated; (3) ecological restoration durations significantly influenced the total phosphorus (TP) content at a soil depth of 0–60 cm, but soil organic carbon and C/P ratio were only significantly impacted at 40–60 cm; (4) the plant and soil characteristics of F1, F2, and F3 treatments were more similar, and CK and F4 treatments were clearly distinguished on PC1 of principal component analysis; (5) there was no significant correlation between Leguminosae groups and environmental factors. Instead, a correlation between total nitrogen (TN) and Forb groups, Gramineae groups, and Cyperaceae groups was revealed. TN was very significantly positively correlated with species diversity and TP. Long-term ecological restoration improved plants biomass, plant species diversity, functional plant groups, and increased soil TP content in the alpine sandy land of northwest Sichuan.

Mulberry (Morus alba), a widely distributed economic plant, can withstand long-term flooding stress. However, the regulatory gene network underlying this tolerance is unknown. In the present study, mulberry plants were subjected to submergence stress. Subsequently, mulberry leaves were collected to perform quantitative reverse-transcription PCR (qRT-PCR) and transcriptome analysis. Genes encoding ascorbate peroxidase and glutathione S-transferase were significantly upregulated after submergence stress, indicating that they could protect the mulberry plant from flood damage by mediating ROS homeostasis. Genes that regulate starch and sucrose metabolism; genes encoding pyruvate kinase, alcohol dehydrogenase, and pyruvate decarboxylase (enzymes involved in glycolysis and ethanol fermentation); and genes encoding malate dehydrogenase and ATPase (enzymes involved in the TCA cycle) were also obviously upregulated. Hence, these genes likely played a key role in mitigating energy shortage during flooding stress. In addition, genes associated with ethylene, cytokinin, abscisic acid, and MAPK signaling; genes involved in phenylpropanoid biosynthesis; and transcription factor genes also showed upregulation under flooding stress in mulberry plants. These results provide further insights into the adaptation mechanisms and genetics of submergence tolerance in mulberry plants and could aid in the molecular breeding of these plants.

The deduced amino acid sequences characteristics, phylogeny, and functional diverge of ω-6 and ω-3 fatty acid desaturase families were analyzed by using Bioinformatics methods. The results showed that all the deduced amino acid sequences shared three highly conserved histidine rich motifs (Hisbox). All the plastidial ω-6 and ω-3 fatty acid desaturases possessed putative N-terminal signal peptide with different amino acids. A relatively conserved hydrophobic region composed of 10 amino-acid residues was found in the middle of signal peptides, which is presumed to be the functional region of the signal peptide of these enzymes. Most of the plant microsomal ω-6 and ω-3 fatty acid desaturases (FAD2 and FAD3) contained a KKXX-like motif of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) retention signal at the C-terminus. However, no such motif was detected in safflower CtFAD2-3, CtFAD2-4, CtFAD2-5, CtFAD2-6, and CtFAD2-7, while an aromatic aa enriched signal (YKNK) was found at their C-terminus which has been reported to be both necessary and sufficient for maintaining localization of the enzymes in the ER. All the amino acid sequences were divided into four categories through phylogenetic analysis. It was suggested that ω-3 fatty acid desaturase originates in a prokaryotic lineage from ω-6 fatty acid desaturase. Both plastidial and microsomal ω-3 fatty acid desaturases could be divided into dicotyledonous and monocotyledonous subgroups, which inferred that functional differentiation of plastidial and microsomal ω-3 fatty acid desaturases had been formed before the divergence of dicotyledonous and monocotyledonous plants. Seed type and housekeeping type FAD2 diverged after the formation of dicotyledonous plants. Except for plant FAD3/plant FAD2, posterior probability values over 0.80 amino acid sites were identified among the functional differentiation subsets, which were mainly distributed at the front and back end of Hisbox I, and the front end of Hisbox II. This indicated that the variations of these amino acid sites played an important role in the size and conformation of protein functional domains and subfamily functional divergence.