Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has a 3000 years' history of human use. A literature survey addressing traditional evidence from human studies was done, with key result that top 10 TCM herb ingredients including Poria cocos, Radix polygalae, Radix glycyrrhizae, Radix angelica sinensis, and Radix rehmanniae were prioritized for highest potential benefit to dementia intervention, related to the highest frequency of use in 236 formulae collected from 29 ancient Pharmacopoeias, ancient formula books, or historical archives on ancient renowned TCM doctors, over the past 10 centuries. Based on the history of use, there was strong clinical support that Radix polygalae is memory improving. Pharmacological investigation also indicated that all the five ingredients mentioned above can elicit memory-improving effects in vivo and in vitro via multiple mechanisms of action, covering estrogen-like, cholinergic, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antiapoptotic, neurogenetic, and anti-Aβ activities. Furthermore, 11 active principles were identified, including sinapic acid, tenuifolin, isoliquiritigenin, liquiritigenin, glabridin, ferulic acid, Z-ligustilide, N-methyl-beta-carboline-3-carboxamide, coniferyl ferulate and 11-angeloylsenkyunolide F, and catalpol. It can be concluded that TCM has a potential for complementary and alternative role in treating senile dementia. The scientific evidence is being continuously mined to back up the traditional medical wisdom.

Background Since air pollution is only one of many environmental stressors that can affect skin, it has been challenging to identify skin appearance or functional features profoundly affected by chronic exposure to traffic‐derived air pollution. Aims The current population study focused on taxi drivers working in urban and rural areas in order to take advantage of difference in occupational exposure. Methods The skin conditions of 100 middle‐aged male taxi drivers from urban Shanghai and 66 from rural Chongming were measured with facial tape strips were collected for biomarker analyses. Results Trans‐epidermal water loss (TEWL) values before and after tape stripping were considerably higher in urban taxi drivers from Shanghai. Contrary to previous studies, there was no apparent detrimental effect on skin wrinkle or pigmentation from traffic pollution, which might be attributed to the higher than general public level of photo‐exposure in this population. At the same time, pollution exposure especially the heavy traffic pollution exposure was found to associate with lower stratum corneum trypsin‐like enzyme activity (SCTE), reduced catalase activity and total antioxidant capacity (TAOC) in tape strips. Conclusion The evidence suggests that traffic‐derived air pollution could deteriorate skin's physical and antioxidant barrier, whereas factors like photo‐exposure can be overwhelming against appearance aging. Therefore, in addition to photoprotection, skin barrier care should be considered for people with high air pollution exposure.

Extracts of mulberry have been shown to reduce post-prandial glucose (PPG) and insulin (PPI) responses, but reliability of these effects and required doses and specifications are unclear. We previously found that 1.5 g of a specified mulberry fruit extract (MFE) significantly reduced PPG and PPI responses to 50 g carbohydrate as rice porridge, with no indications of intolerance. The trials reported here aimed to replicate that work and assess the efficacy of lower MFE doses, using boiled rice as the carbohydrate source. Two separate randomized controlled intervention studies were carried out with healthy Indian males and females age 20-50 (N=84 per trial), with PPG area under the curve over 2 hr as the primary outcome. Trial 1 used doses of 0, 0.37, 0.75, 1.12 and 1.5 g MFE in boiled rice, and 0 or 1.5 g MFE in rice porridge. Trial 2 used doses of 0, 0.04, 0.12, 0.37 g MFE in boiled rice. In trial 1, relative to control, all MFE doses significantly decreased PPG (−27.2 to −22.9%; all p ≤ 0.02) and PPI (−34.6 to −14.0%, all p < 0.01). Breath hydrogen was significantly increased only at 1.5 g MFE (in rice porridge), and self-reported gastrointestinal symptoms were uniformly low. In trial 2, only 0.37 g MFE significantly affected PPG (−20.4%, p = 0.002) and PPI (−17.0%, p <0.001). Together, these trials show that MFE in doses as low as 0.37 g can reliably reduce PPG and PPI responses to a carbohydrate-rich meal, with no apparent adverse effects.

Skin surface is constantly exposed to environmental and secreted stressors such as UV, air pollution and peroxidized sebum. The current study aims to use reconstructed human skin equivalents to demonstrate topical stressor‐induced hyperpigmentation and evaluate bioactives’ potential protective effect. Given that polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are representative airborne particle‐bound organic compounds with known relevance to pigmentation pathways, benzo(a)pyrene was selected as surrogate environmental toxin. On the other hand, squalene monohydroperoxides are well‐characterized sebum peroxidation product under UV and pollutant exposure, thus are used as another representative skin stressor. With 3‐day continuous exposure, 30 pmol/cm2 of benzo(a)pyrene and 3.4 nmol/cm2 of squalene monohydroperoxides induced significant viability loss, inflammatory response, and approximately 10 shades of pigmentation increase in pigmented living skin equivalents. At the same time, pretreatment and co‐treatment with 12‐hydroxystearic acid (12‐HSA, 20 μmol/L) or niacinamide (5 mmol/L) ameliorated such stressor‐induced consequences. Niacinamide was particularly effective against benzo(a)pyrene damage, probably as a substrate for important NAD+ dependent detoxification pathways, while 12‐HSA was potent against squalene monohydroperoxides through barrier enhancing, anti‐inflammatory, and anti‐oxidative mechanisms. In summary, topical stressor‐induced hyperpigmentation was achieved in vitro, with known bioactives showing protective benefits.