Cucumber Pharmacognosy Research

Sea cucumber is the dry body wall of trepan line of Echinodermata. It's sorts of traditional medicine to develoz,. We study on its medical history and pharmacognosy systematically. Sea cucumber was first recorded in Ski Wu Ben Cao. They are prescribed for blood and essence insufficiency, consumption disease, impotence and seminal emission, frequent urination, intestinal obstruction and constipation, pulmonasthenia cough and hemoptysis etc. It's used in cerebrovascular disease. This thesis has studied the seven sorts of sea cucumber collected in pbarmacognosy and pharmacoiogy by the methods of micromanipulation, amino acid analysis, analysis of ultraviolet, GC/MS and ICP. The seven sea cucumbers are Holothuria (Lessonothuria) imsignis , Holothuria (Lessonothuria) multipilula , Holothuria (Mictothele) nobilis, Holothuria (Thymiosycia) impatiens, Holothuria (Me triatyla) scabra, Actinopyga echinites, Thelenota ananas. Pharmacological study was taken in platelet aggregation, opposing thromboxane and cerebral ischenia.. Results are following. 1. Oblivious differences of species?and category are detected in their shape and micro-character. Identification was taken though the distribution, shape and quantity of deposits of sea cucumber. Majority of deposits are table, button, rod, and texture shape. There is obvious discrepancy in the sorts of mouthpart, anus part, back, abdomen and tentacle of the same sea cucumber. 2.The main chemical composition are close to each other, including amino acid, hexosamine, 6-deoxy-hexose, hexuronic acid, fatty acid and inorganic element. According to the content of amino acid, besides Holothuria (Lessonothuria) imsignis, Glycocoll (Gly) is the highest content of the other six. Glutaminic acid (Glu) is the topmost content in Holothuria (Lessonothuria) imsignis. The content of fat in sea cucumber are low. The highest one is Thelenota ananas, 2.242%. The majority of fat of succumbed is Monounsaturated fatty acid (MUFA). Holothuria (Mictothele) nobilis has the highest MUFA, 74.64%. Nine essential microelements, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Si, V and Zn, are finded in the seven sorts of sea cucumber. Cr, Zn, Fe, Si of Actinopyga echinites, Co, V of Holothuria (Metriatyla) scabra, Cu, Ni of Holothuria (Thymiosycia) impatiens, Cu of Thelenota ananas is the highest. Apart of that, the content of Mn of Holothuria (Metriatyla) scabra and Si of Actinopyga echinites is far exceeding the other sea cucumber. The rate of polysaccharide obtained of Holothuria (Mictothele) nobilis is the highest. The body wall and viscera of seven cucumbers have saponin. 3.Parmacological study was taken in the poiysaccharide of the sea cucumber. No obvious toxicity is detected after mouse ate polysaccharides. The poiysaccharides of seven cucumbers have no toxicity.. They can advance the platelet aggregation induced by ADP when their density are 70mg/mi and 140mg/mi. The influence isn't visible in the platelet aggregation induced by arachidonic acid (AA) when their density are 140mg/mi. Almost all polysaccharide can lengthen thrombin time (TT) and thromboplastin (PT), except Thelenota ananas. The polysaccharide of Holothuria (Metriatyla) scabra can exceeds the decease time of cerebral ischemia in mouse. Its effect depends on dosage. The effect of the other polysaccharide isn't discovered. This research presents science proof for quality control and development of sea cucumber and drafts a quality standard of sea cucumber. Ou...