Holistic Health Articles and Research Related to Herbal Medicines, Foods and Phytochemicals : Chinese Herbs

Saturday 9 November 2013

Chinese Herbs– Hai Long (Syngnathus Acus)

Hai Long is also known as Sea Dragon. The sweet, salty and warm herb has been used in TCM as sex hormone enhancing, anti cancer agent and to promote circulation, auto immune activities, treat impotence, spermatorrhea, cysts, swelling of the lymph nodes, etc., as it tonifies the Kidneys, strengthens the Yang, resolves edema and masses, etc., by enhancing the functions of liver and kidney channels.

Ingredients
1. Cystine
2. Protein,
3. Fatty acids
4. Steroids
5. Cholesterol,
6. Cholest-en-4 – one -3
7. Solenin
8. Etc.

Health Benefits
1. Antifungal and lectin activities
in the isolation of a single-chained protein designated solenin rom Solenognathus hardwickii, a fish used as traditional Chinese medicinal material, found that Solenin exhibited a molecular weight of 18kDa and possessed an N-terminal sequence AHDAEVNEVKAQVAA. The protein was adsorbed on three types of chromatographic media: Affi-gel blue gel, CM-Sepharose and Mono S. It was devoid of antifungal and lectin activities, according to “Solenin, a novel protein with translation-inhibiting activity from the traditional Chinese medicinal fish, the sea dragon Solenognathus hardwickii” by Ng TB, Lam YW.(1)

2. Antioxidant effects
In the investigation of the method based on high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with diode array detector coupled with electrospray ionisation-mass spectrometry and an online detection system for radical scavenging of quantify antioxidant compounds in the water extracts of Hippocampus japonicus Kaup, Hippocampus kuda Bleeker and Syngnathus acus Linnaeus
found that the developed HPLC method is simple and reliable for the quantification of hypoxanthine with a detection limit at 0.002 µg mL(-1), and a high recovery from 96.3% to 102.1%. This method provides a powerful tool for rapid identification and quantification of free radical scavenging compounds in complex marine natural products, according to “Rapid finding and quantification of the major antioxidant in water extracts of three marine drug organisms from China by online HPLC-DAD/MS-DPPH” by Zheng L, Chen J, Zhao H, Shi Q, Yang B, Cheng H, Zang J, Wang X.(2)
3. Anti cancers
In the study of the anticancer activity of Syngnathus in vitro, found that the fat-soluble nonsaponified extract from Temminck et Schlegel and the alcoholic extract from Syngnathus acus have cytotoxic activities. The nonsaponified extract from Temminck et Schlegel can inhibit the growth of cancer cell strains KB, Hela, PAA, K562, and Bcap37, and the alcoholic extract from Syngnathus acus can inhibit the growth of cancer cell strin KB, But Bloch shows no apparent anticancer activity, according to “[Study on anticancer activity of Syngnathus in vitro].[Article in Chinese]” by Li SM, Wu XD, Zeng S, Luan LJ, Shao Q.(3)
4. Etc.

Side Effects

1. Do not use the herb in case of yin deficiency with heat
2. Do not use Hai Long in case of spleen deficiency with cold
3. Overdoses and prolonged period of using can cause damage to kidney
4. Do not use the herb in newborn, children or if you are pregnant or breast feeding without consulting first with the related field specialist.
5. Etc.