Angelica dahurica (A. dahurica) root is a famous edible medicinal herb that has been used in China for thousands of years. To date, more than 300 chemical constituents have been discovered from A. dahurica. Among these ingredients, coumarins and volatile oils are the major active compounds. Moreover, a few other compounds have also been isolated from the root of A. dahurica, such as alkaloids, phenols, sterols, benzofurans, polyacetylenes and polysaccharides. Modern pharmacological studies demonstrated that the root of A. dahurica and its active components displayed various bioactivities such as anti-inflammation, anti-tumor, anti-oxidation, analgesic activity, antiviral and anti-microbial effects, effects on the cardiovascular system, neuroprotective function, hepatoprotective activity, effects on skin diseases and so on. Based on these studies, this review focused on the research publications of A. dahurica and aimed to summarize the advances in the traditional uses, phytochemistry and pharmacology which will provide reference for the further studies and applications of A. dahurica.

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This study provided a detailed method for extraction and purification of policosanols from hydrolysed rice bran wax (RBW) by high-intensity ultrasound (HIU), where the hydrolysis of RBW under HIU was focused. The optimised operating conditions for hydrolysis were as the following: 20 kHz, 100 W, 1:2 of wax to 4% sodium hydroxide (w:v) and 50 min at ambient temperature, under which the hydrolysis rate of 94.3% was obtained. Thereafter, policosanols were extracted and purified from the hydrolysed RBW. With the analysis by GC, it was shown that even-numbered aliphatic alcohols were the major components of the policosanols, accounting for 95% or so, where triacontanol (C 30 ) was the predominant component with 26.95%, followed by octacosanol (C 28 ) with 17.04%, dotriacotanol (C 32 ) with 16.01%, tetracosanol (C 24 ) with 11.13%, hexacosanol with 10.90%; however, the odd-numbered alcohols only accounted for about 5% and they were non-acosanol (C 29 ) with 2.92%, heptacosanol (C 27 ) with 1.57% and pentacosanol (C 25 ) with 0.65%.

Grapefruit (Citrus paradisi Macf.) furanocoumarins and related compounds have been shown to interact with the enterocyte cytochrome P450, CYP3A4, and as a result they affect the bioavailibility of certain drugs. Only a few grapefruit furanocoumarins have been identified so far. In this study, grapefruit juice retentate, rich in furanocoumarins, was extracted and then separated by flash chromatography for the examination of new compounds. Finally, nine new furanocoumarins were detected in different fractions according to their UV spectra and mass spectrometric properties by LC-MS (liquid chromatography mass spectrometry) and tentatively designated as FC 338, FC 420, FC 524, FC 530, FC 540, FC 546, FC 552, FC 570 and FC 614.

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