Sophora tonkinensis, in brief S. tonkinensis, is commonly used as a traditional Chinese herbal medicine. It is a perennial member of the Sophora genus in the family Leguminosae and mainly spreads over the Guangxi Province and Guizhou Province, China. The earliest record of this herb appeared in an ancient Chinese medical book entitled “Kai Bao Ben Cao”, where it is described as bitter cold in taste and toxic to the human body. According to the theory of meridian tropism, it benefits our lung and stomach because it is able to clear the intracorporal heat, detoxicate, reduce swelling and relieves sore throat. In modern clinical medicine, it is commonly adopted to treat diseases like swollen sore throat, jaundice with damp-heat and arrhythmia.
S. tonkinensis abounds in healthy chemicals with wide pharmacological activities and potential value of application. Its chemical ingredients can be divided into five categories, which include alkaloids, flavonoids, polysaccharides, triterpenoids, and some miscellaneous ingredients such as phenolic compounds, coumarins, anthraquinones, sterols, caffeic acids, fatty acids, proteins and amino acids. These chemicals overall show many beneficial pharmacological effects, among which are anti-tumor effect, anti-inflammatory effect, anti-bacteria and anti-virus, anti-oxidation, stimulation of immune system, and liver protection.
In particular, alkaloids and flavonoids account for the major part in the above-mentioned chemicals. They bear anti-tumor, immune-potentiation and anti-arrhythmic activities. Hence, S. tonkinensis is bound to be a promising source of bioactive natural products.
Researches of pharmacological effects at present, however, mainly focus on alkaloids and polysaccharide. There are few reports about pharmacological effects of flavonoids, triterpenes and other constituents, which have yet to be further studied. The content of active constituents should be further determined so that the main constituent can be found. Again, we should pay more attention to the drug-effect relationship and dose-effect relationship.
Matrine, a kind of alkaloids, is both an active component and a poisonous component. Improper dosage will easily lead to intoxication. Therefore, it is necessary to study its dose-effect and dose-toxicity relationship and maximize efficacy on the premise of minimum adverse reactions via processing and combination of drugs in order to provide preferable guide to clinical medication.
Adverse reactions of S. tonkinensis include nerve toxicity reaction as the most serious one, gastrointestinal reaction as the primary one and anaphylactic reaction. Oversize dosage is the major cause of adverse reactions. Patients with low level of S. tonkinensis intoxication show as headache, nausea, palpitation or oppression in chest. Patients with high level show as strong beating of heart and elevation of blood pressure, while some patients will even show as disturbance of consciousness and expiratory dyspnea, and they will finally die for shock, pulmonary edema and respiratory failure. Matrine and cytisine are the poisonous constituents of S. tonkinensis. With the nicotinic effect, matrine can stimulate cholinergic autonomic nervous system and palsy central nervous system and respiratory muscle so as to produce symptoms like dizziness and vomiting, instability of gait and respiratory arrest. Cytisine can reflectively stimulate respiratory center and vasomotor center to accelerate respiration and heartbeat and elevate blood pressure so as to mainly involve nervous system, digestive system and respiratory system, while respiratory failure is the direct cause of death.
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