Astragalus mongholicus (MG) and Astragalus membranaceus (MJ), both generally known as Huangqi in China, are two perennial herbals widely used in variety diseases. However, there were still some differences in the chemical ingredients between MG and MJ. In this paper, metabolomics combined with the ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled with electrospray ionization/quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC-ESI-Q-TOF-MS/MS) was employed to contrastively analyze the chemical constituents between MG and MJ. As a result, principal component analysis showed that MG and MJ were separated clearly. A total of 53 chemical markers were successfully identified for the discrimination of MG and MJ. Of them, the contents of 36 components including Astragaloside I~III, Astragaloside IV, Agroastragaloside I, etc. in MJ were significantly higher than those in MG. On the contrary, the contents of 17 other components including coumaric acid, formononetin, sophoricoside, etc. in MG were obviously higher than those in MJ. The results showed that the distinctive constituents in MG and MJ were remarkable, and MJ may own stronger pharmacological activities than MG. In a word, MG and MJ may be treated as two different herbs. This paper demonstrated that metabolomics was a vitally credible technology to rapidly screen the characteristic chemical composition of traditional Chinese medicine.

Corn silk (Zea mays L.) is the stigma of an annual gramineous plant named corn, which is distributed in many regions worldwide and has a long history of medicinal use. In recent years, with the sustainable development of traditional Chinese medicine, studies of corn silk based on modern technologies, such as GC–MS, LC–MS, and other analytical means, have offered more comprehensive analyses. Phytochemistry studies have shown that the main bioactive components in corn silk include flavonoids, polyphenols, phenolic acids, fatty acids, and terpenoids. Pharmacological studies have shown that corn silk extract has various pharmacological effects, such as reducing blood lipids, lowering blood pressure, regulating blood sugar levels, anti-inflammatory effects, and anti-oxidation effects. In this paper, the related research on corn silk from the past few years is summarized to provide a theoretical reference for the further development and utilization of corn silk.

The description of the “kidney” was entirely different from modern medicine. In traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), the kidney was a functional concept regulating water metabolism, which was closely related to the urinary system, reproductive system, nervous system, endocrine, skeleton, hearing, metabolism, immunity, etc. In particular, the kidney in TCM plays an important regulatory role in the processes of growth, development, prime, aging, and reproduction. Hence, “Kidney Governing Bone” (KGB) was a classical theory in TCM, which hypothesized that the function of the kidney was responsible for bone health. However, the related modern physiological mechanisms of this TCM theory are unclear. This present paper proposed a new understanding and explored the biological basis of the KGB theory. After searching through plenty of reported literature, we discovered that the functions of the kidney in TCM were closely associated with the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis in modern science. The physiological mechanism of the KGB was regulated by sex hormones and their receptors. This review deciphered the connotation of the KGB theory in modern medicine and further verified the scientificity of the basic TCM theory.

Astragalus membranaceus (Fisch.) Bge. var. mongholicus (Bge.) P. K. Hsiao (MO) and Astragalus membranaceus (Fisch.) Bug. (ME) are two primary sources of the Astragalus herb, also known as “Huangqi” in China, which is widely applied to treat hypertension, glomerulonephritis, ischemic heart disease, and diabetes mellitus. As two different sources of the Astragalus herb, the chemical profiles of MO and ME may be different. Previous studies showed abundant differences in chemical composition between MO and ME. Therefore, the by-products of MO and ME, such as Astragalus membranaceus (Fisch.) Bge. var. mongholicus (Bge.) P. K. Hsiao flower (MOF) and Astragalus membranaceus (Fisch.) Bug. flower (MEF), may have different phytochemical profiles. In this paper, a metabolomics method combined with ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography and electrospray ionization/quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC−Q−TOF−MS/MS) was employed to analyze the components of MOF and MEF. Consequently, the results of principal component analysis (PCA) showed that MOF and MEF could be separated clearly. In total, 31 chemical markers differentiating MOF and MEF were successfully identified, including 22 flavonoids, 8 isoflavones and 1 benzopyran. Among them, the contents of 18 components, including Calycosin, Cyanidin-3-O-glucoside, Quercetin, Rutin, Kaempferol, Formononetin, Isomucronulatol and Prim-O-glucosylcimifugin in MEF, were significantly higher than in MOF. In turn, the contents of another 13 components, covering Biochanin A, Tectoridin, Isomucronulatol-7-O-glucoside, Liquiritin, Rhamnetin, etc., were lower in the MEF group than that in the MOF group. It is worth noting that flavonoids, especially flavonoid glycosides, were the primary active chemical ingredients in MOF and MEF. The 18 ingredients in MEF with a higher level carried out diverse activities, like anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial and anti-tumor activities, which led us to speculate that MEF may have greater pharmacological effects and potential development prospects than MOF. The present results displayed that the contents of ingredients in the two different species of plants were radically different, and there was significant uniqueness to the components of MOF and MEF. Our study not only provides helpful chemical information for further quality assessment and active mechanism research of MOF and MEF but also offers scientific support for the resource utilization of MOF and MEF.