Coptis chinensis extract
 
Product name: Coptis chinensis extract
Botanical Source: Coptis chinensis Franch.
Plant part used: Root
Specifications:Berberine5%,10% by HPLC

Plant introduction
Speaking of coptis root, which is also known as rhizoma coptidis and Huang Lian, bitterness may be the first thing that comes to mind for most people. Its bitterness is so strong and distinct that seemingly its bitterness could even sting your eyes when you lay your eyes on it. No wonder in China there is a widespread old saying, "The dumb man eating the coptis herb - he had to suffer the bitterness in silence." As you may know, this is one of commonly used Chinese herbs, which was initially recorded in the Shennong Bencao Jing (Shennong Emperor's Classic of Materia Medica) and listed as one of the best herbs. Today this herb becomes one of the 40 kinds of large bulk herbs and also one of the 30 kinds of most valuable Chinese herbal medicines. It is quite normal that you have an aversion to the bitter flavor as bitterness would stomp on the back of your tongue. However, you may not know the fact that the extensive coptis medicinal uses actually derive from this unsavory taste - bitter pills may have blessed effects. As it turns out, coptis is that type of blessed herb used for a variety of diseases, especially for gastrointestinal disorders.
Medicinally it mainly means the dried root and rhizome of Coptis chinensis Franch. (Wei Lian), Coptis deltoidea C. Y. Cheng et Hsiao (Ya Lian), or Coptis teeta Wall. (Yun Lian), which are plants in the family Ranunculaceae. As you can see, these three species are different from coptis japonica that is native to Japan. Therefore, other common names of this herb are coptis rhizome, rhizoma coptidis, Chinese gold thread, Chuan lian, coptidis rhizoma, coptis chinensis root, coptis goldthread, etc. Commercially most of them are from cultivation and mainly produced in Sichuan, Yunnan, and Hubei. The one collected during autumn is usually considered superior medicinally. And after the harvest, it needs to remove its fibrous roots and dirt attached and dried. And it is used raw, fried alone, or processed with ginger juice, rice wine, or evodia decoction.
The plant of coptis chinensis is a perennial herb. Root & rhizome is yellow, branched often, and densely covered with many fibrils. All leaves are basal. Petiole is from 5 to 16cm. Blade is papery, ovate-triangular, 10cm wide, and 3-lobed. Flower stems are 1 to 2 in number, equal or longer to leaf in length. Dichotomous or pleiochasium cyme has 3 to 8 flowers. Bracts are lanceolate and 3 to 5 pinnatipartite. Seeds are 7 to 8 pieces, oblong, about 2mm, and brown. Its flowering period is from February to April and fruiting period from March to June.
 
Active ingredients
Major chemical constituents of Coptis chinensis are 5.56% to 7.25% berberine, coptisine, epiberberine, berberrubine, palmatine, columbamine, jatrorrhizine, worenine, magnoflorine, ferulic acid, obakunone, and obakulactone.

Functions
1. It has a strong antibacterial effect on staphylococcus, streptococcus, pneumococcus, Vibrio cholerae, Bacillus anthracis, and dysentery bacterium except Shigella sonnei;
2. It also has an antibacterial effect on Klebsiella pneumoniae, Corynebacterium diphtheriae, Bacillus subtilis, Bordetella pertussis, yersinia pestis, brucellosis, and tuberculosis;
3. It has poor antibacterial effect on E. coli, Proteus, and Salmonella typhi;
4. The berberine can stimulate the heart, increase its contractility, and increase coronary blood flow when used in small dose and suppress the heart and weaken its contraction when used in large dose;
5. The berberine can reduce the heart rate of toad and stimulate the isolated atria of rabbit, guinea pig, and rat. It can also resist arrhythmia, have good cholagogic action, inhibit gastric secretion, arrest diarrhea, prevent acute inflammation, fight cancer, reduce tissue metabolism, and so on. And small dose of berberine can strengthen the excitability process in mouse's cerebral cortex while large dose instead can strengthen the inhibition process;
6. Berberine and tetrahydroberberine can reduce myocardial oxygen consumption;
7. Berberine and its extracts have anti-ulcer effect.

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