Yang Fengqin, Ding Shuqin, Liu Wei, Liu Junwen, Zhang Wei, Zhao Qipeng, Ma Xueqin
School of Laboratory Medicine, Ningxia Medical University, Yinchuan 750004, China.
The Fourth People׳s Hospital of Ningxiahui Autonomous Region, Yinchuan 750001, China.
J Ethnopharmacol. 2015 Apr 2;163:88-93. doi: 10.1016/j.jep.2015.01.025. Epub 2015 Jan 24.
A series of 40 important Traditional Chinese Medicines (TCMs), which were reported effective in treating superficial fungal infections of the skin in Chinese clinical trial publications and Chinese Herbal Classics, were chosen for the investigation of the individual and combination antifungal properties against 8 superficial fungal strains in vitro.
Plant preparations were followed the theory of TCM by using sterile water boiled with plant material at 100°C to produce water decoction of the tested sample. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of each plant for each fungus was determined. For the compatibility investigation, both invariable (same amounts of each tested TCM) and variable (different amounts of each tested TCM) combinations were evaluated.
All the tested TCMs demonstrated varying degrees of antifungal activities against one or more of the tested superficial fungi, and 16 of which were effective on all of the fungi. Strong antifungal activities were exhibited by water decoction of 7 TCMs with MIC at about 100μg/ml, and among these effective antifungal extracts, 4 TCMs including Melaphis chinensis, Polygonum cuspidatum, Punica granatum and Schisandra chinensis showed the significantly inhibitory activities against all of the fungi with MICs among 50μg/ml. Most of the invariable combinations of the above-mentioned 4 TCMs showed synergic effects against 4 of the least susceptible fungi strains, especially the invariable combination of Punica granatum, Melaphis chinensis and Schisandra chinensis, with the MIC at 23.4μg/ml. However, their further variable combinations investigation demonstrated that only the combination of 7.5g Punica granatum with 10g Melaphis chinensis and 7.5g Schisandra chinensis showed synergic effect with the MIC at19.5μg/ml.
The present study aimed the discovery of therapeutically useful agents for treatment of superficial fungal infections. Findings suggested that the combination of 3 TCMs including Punica granatum, Melaphis chinensis and Schisandra chinensis showed potential antifungal activity and thus appeared to be promising agents in preventing superficial fungal skin infectious in a natural way through herbal resources. The synergic effects of invariable and variable combinations of the tested TCMs threw a light on our further animal model and clinical practice as well as the bio-guided isolation and identification of the antifungal compounds.
从40种重要的传统中药中进行筛选，这些中药在中国临床试验出版物和《本草纲目》中被报道对治疗皮肤浅表真菌感染有效，选取这些中药来研究其对8种皮肤浅表真菌菌株的单独及联合抗真菌特性。
植物制剂遵循中医理论，用无菌水与植物材料在100°C煮沸，制备受试样品的水煎剂。测定每种植物对每种真菌的最低抑菌浓度（MIC）。对于配伍研究，评估了固定组合（每种受试中药用量相同）和可变组合（每种受试中药用量不同）。
所有受试中药对一种或多种受试浅表真菌均表现出不同程度的抗真菌活性，其中16种对所有真菌均有效。7种中药的水煎剂表现出较强的抗真菌活性，MIC约为100μg/ml，在这些有效的抗真菌提取物中，包括五倍子、虎杖、石榴皮和五味子在内的4种中药对所有真菌均表现出显著的抑制活性，MIC在50μg/ml以下。上述4种中药的大多数固定组合对4种最不敏感的真菌菌株表现出协同作用，尤其是石榴皮、五倍子和五味子的固定组合，MIC为23.4μg/ml。然而，它们进一步的可变组合研究表明，只有7.5g石榴皮与10g五倍子和7.5g五味子的组合表现出协同作用，MIC为19.5μg/ml。
本研究旨在发现治疗皮肤浅表真菌感染的有效药物。研究结果表明，石榴皮、五倍子和五味子这3种中药的组合具有潜在的抗真菌活性，因此似乎有望通过草药资源以天然方式预防皮肤浅表真菌感染。受试中药固定组合和可变组合的协同作用为我们进一步开展动物模型和临床实践以及抗真菌化合物的生物导向分离和鉴定提供了思路。
