Ethanol extract (EE) from Periplaneta americana (PA) is the main ingredient of Kangfuxin, which is a popular traditional chinese medicine (TCM) and has long been used for the clinical treatment of burns, wounds and ulcers. We compared the wound-healing activities of three extracts of PA using cutaneous wound-healing in mice as the bioactivity model. These three extracts were EE, total polysaccharide and total protein. We also tracked bioactive fractions in the EE by organic reagent extraction, column chromatography and HPLC. Seven compounds were successfully identified from the water elution fraction of the EE of PA using UPLC-MS. Among these compounds, four compounds (P2, P3, P4, P5(1)) were first reported in PA. Some of these compounds have been previously reported to have various pharmacological activities that could contribute to the high wound-healing activity of PA.

During a 30-day period of increasing salinity, we examined the effects of NaCl on leaf H? -ATPase and salinity tolerance in 1-year-old plants of Populus euphratica Oliv. (salt resistant) and P. popularis 35-44 (P. popularis) (salt sensitive). Electron probe X-ray microanalysis of leaf mesophyll revealed that P. euphratica had a higher ability to retain lower NaCl concentrations in the cytoplasm, as compared to P. popularis. The sustained activity of H ? pumps (by cytochemical staining) in salinised P. euphratica suggests a role in energising salt transport through the plasma membrane (PM) and tonoplast. Saltinduced alterations of leaf respiration, ATP content and expression of PM H ? -ATPase were compared between the two species. Results show that P. euphratica retained a constant respiratory rate, ATP production and protein abundance of PM H ? -ATPase (by Western blotting) in salt-stressed plants. P. euphratica was able to maintain a comparatively high capacity of ATP hydrolysis and H ? pumping during prolonged salt exposure. By contrast, the activity and expression of PM H ? -ATPase were markedly decreased in P. popularis leaves in response to salt stress. Furthermore, NaCl-stressed P. popularis plants showed a marked decline of respiration (70%) and ATP production (66%) on day 30. We conclude that the inability of P. popularis to transport salt to the apoplast and vacuole was partly due to the decreased activity of H ? pumps. As a consequence, cytosolic ion concentrations were observed to be comparatively high for an extended period of time, so that cell metabolism, in particular respiration, was disrupted in P. popularis leaves.

Three new dihydroisocoumarin glucosides, termed periplanosides A-C (1-3), a known analog, pericanaside (4), and the other twenty known compounds were isolated from the insect Periplaneta americana. Their structures including absolute configurations were determined by comprehensive spectroscopic analyses and computational methods. Biological evaluation showed that compound 2 could stimulate collagen production by 31.2% in human dermal fibroblasts-adult (HDFa) at the concentration of 30 μM, indicating its significance in skin repair and ulcer.

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