ReviewCuscuta chinensis Lam.: A systematic review on ethnopharmacology, phytochemistry and pharmacology of an important traditional herbal medicine
Graphical abstract
Introduction
Cuscuta chinensis Lam. (Cuscuta chinensis; Convolvulaceae, (The Plant List., 2013)) is a parasitic plant which is also known as Chinese Dodder (Mavlonov et al., 2008), or Tu-Si-Zi in Chinese (Flora of China, 2006). It is commonly used in traditional medicine as a tonic and aphrodisiac in China and other Asian countries. It is often used as a functional food by adding to alcoholic beverages or porridge to improve sexual potency and vision and prevent abortion (Zheng et al., 1998).
Cuscuta chinensis has two synonyms (Cuscuta. carinata R. Br. and Cuscuta. chinensis var. carinata (R. Br.) Engelm) (The Plant List., 2013). No articles were found after searching by using these two names. However, it was found that Cuscuta chinensis Lam. was used in 80 reports (both in English and Chinese articles including 35 plant-authorized articles) and was not used in 17 Chinese articles in which the plant was just defined as Tu-Si-Zi. Cuscuta chinensis Lam. should be used instead of Tu-Si-Zi in all publications in the future.
Cuscuta chinensis (Fig. 1) is a parasitic plant that wraps around other plants and uses them for its nourishment. The plant grows near seaside. Stems thin, twining, filiform, glabrous, yellowish or pale yellowish, ca. 1 mm diam. The plant has no leaf or reduced to minute scales. The flowers are hermaphrodite. Inflorescence lateral, compact cymose glomelurous, few to many flowered clusters or racemes, white; bracteoles scale-like and bracts. Pedical ca. 1 mm. Calyx lobe 4–5, capular, sepals triangular ovate ca. 1.5 mm, ridged on outer surface, apex obtuse, partly thickened. Corolla 3–3.5 mm long, white, urceolate, 4 or 5 lopes, lopes detoid-ovate, apex acute or obtuse, spreading horizontally, fimbriate, reflexed, infrastaminal scales shorter than tube. Stamens anthers ovoid, exserted. Ovary subglobose, locues 2, ovules 4, styles 2, slender. Stigmas globose, capitates. Capsules globose, ca. 3 mm wide, enclosed by persistent corolla; pericarp thin, circumscissile. The seeds 2–4, broadly ovalate, 1–2 mm long, pale brown, not smooth. Flowering in June–October; December–March; February–May and fruits in August–October. It can grow in semi-shade (light woodland) or no shade and requires moist soil. It is often on the plants of Fabaceae, Asteraceae, and Zygophyllaceae. Cuscuta chinensis is distributed in Africa: Ethiopia; Middle Asia: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan; Mongolia; Russia; China; Western Asia: Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan; Tropical Asia: India, Sri Lanka; Indonesia; Eastern Asia: Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand; Australasia. It is distributed in most parts of China mainly in Henan, Jiangsu, Shandong, Hebei, Jilin, Liaoning provinces and Taiwan region. Its aerial parts are excavated in autumn when the fruits are ripe and dried by natural sunlight and thrashed for seeds. It is used in its unprocessed form or boiled after removal of impurities. It is also pounded into cake for use after being steamed (Liao et al., 2000, Lei, 2000, Teng, 2007, Costea et al., 2011) .
Although many researchers have attempted to find out the chemical constituents including the pharmacological activities and clinical applications of Cuscuta chinensis which are evidenced by an increasing number of published scientific literatures in this area, there is no review literature available. This current review therefore aims to provide an overview of the ethnomedicinal use, phytochemical properties, pharmacokinetics, pharmacological activities and clinical applications of Cuscuta chinensis, as well as being an evidence base for further research works of this plant.
Section snippets
Phytochemistry
Cuscuta chinensis is a parasitic plant so that its phytochemical constituents depend on the type of host (Lin et al., 2007). The chemical constituents of Cuscuta chinensis are flavonoids, polysaccharides, alkaloids, steroids, volatile oils, lignans and others (Fig. 2) (Miyahara et al., 1996, Du et al., 1998, Wang et al., 2000, Wang et al., 2001, Bao et al., 2002, Hou et al., 2003). Flavonoids account for about 3.0% of the total chemical constituents. The main flavonoids including kaempferol,
Ethnopharmacology
Around 2000 years ago, Cuscuta chinensis was recorded in Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing (Shen Nong׳s Herbal, the ancient Chinese herbal classic) for the first time in Chinese history. It was listed as a “top grade” drug for the kidney-tonifying and liver-strengthening functions (Mou, 2002). The plant was used as a tonic medicine by traditional Chinese medicine practitioners for the treatment of kidney and liver deficiency (He et al., 2010). Cuscuta chinensis has an ability to tonify kidney and nourish
Pharmacokinetics
The studies about pharmacokinetics (PK) of Cuscuta chinensis are very limited. There are 2 reports: the PK study of quercetin in rat and hyperoside in human after oral administration of Cuscuta chinensis. Zheng et al. studied about the PK of Cuscuta chinensis in rat׳s serum by using HPLC-UV to determine the concentrations of quercetin in rats plasma. The rats were given 0.85 g/kg 95% ethanol extract of the Cuscuta chinensis seeds by gavage. They found that the highest concentration of quercetin
Pharmacology
The long history of medicinal applications of Cuscuta chinensis has inspired many pharmacological research works. The study indicates that Cuscuta chinensis shows a broad range of biological activities, which are briefly shown in Table 4.
Clinical applications
Currently in China, Cuscuta chinensis seeds are usually prescribed by doctors or traditional Chinese medicine practitioners with a usual dosage of 9–15 g oral administration, and the maximum dosage of 30 g each time (Ceng and Zhang, 2000) without obvious side effects reported for supplementing or treating various diseases, as shown below.
Conclusion
Cuscuta chinensis is commonly used in traditional medicines as a tonic and aphrodisiac in China and some Asian countries. It is reported to contain flavonoids, phenolic acids, steroids, hydroquinones, volatile oils, lignans, alkaloids, polysaccharides, resin glycosides and fatty acids. About 3.0% of the total chemical constituents are flavonoids which have been linked to the pharmacological activities of its extracts, especially kaempferol that shows antioxidant, estrogenic actions and
Acknowledgments
This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81374050) and (NSFC81125024), Program for Innovative Research Team in Universities of Tianjin (TD12-5033) and Tianjin Research Program of Application Foundation and Advanced Technology (12JCQNJC08800) and we are thankful to Prof. Michael Heinrich and the other three anonymous reviewers for their useful comments and suggestions on the manuscript.
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