Research progress on chemical composition, pharmacological mechanism, quality control, and processing of Hezi
The plant Terminalia chebular Retz. belongs to the Ranunculaceae family, and its dried and mature fruit Chebulae Fructus is a commonly used Chinese medicinal herb. The Chinese medicinal herb Hezi has a bitter, sour, and astringent taste, with a mild nature. It belongs to the lung and large intestine meridians and has the effects of astringent intestines, stopping diarrhea, converging lungs, and stopping cough. It is used for long-term diarrhea, diarrhea, rectal bleeding, lung deficiency, wheezing, persistent coughing, sore throat, and hoarseness. It is widely used in folk medicine in China and is even regarded as the “king of medicine” in Tibetan medicine. It can be used for the treatment of various diseases. Hezi contains a variety of chemical components, mainly including phenolic acids, tannins, and triterpenoids, such as gallic acid, succinic acid, arjugenin, etc. Modern pharmacological research has found that extracts of Hedyotis diffusa, such as Hedyotis diffusa water extract and some of its individual components, exhibit antibacterial, antioxidant, anti-tumor, anti-inflammatory, detoxifying, analgesic, cardiotonic, hepatoprotective, hypoglycemic, gastric emptying and small intestine propulsion activities, promote angiogenesis, and protect the brain and liver. In addition to focusing on its pharmacological properties, it is also necessary to understand the processing, clinical safety, and quality issues of Hezi in the study of Hezi. Therefore, this article also elaborates on the processing related, self toxicity, and quality evaluation research of Hezi.

 

This article mainly summarizes the research on Hezi in recent years, including the main components of Hezi, including 38 tannins, 23 phenolic acids, and 14 triterpenoids; Exploring research on the quality inspection of Hezi, indicating that the quality of Hezi is directly related to the several main components it contains, and establishing new detection methods; A summary of the different pharmacological activities and mechanisms of action of the compounds contained in Hezi. This article mainly synthesizes the classic pharmacological effects and mechanisms of Hezi, such as antibacterial, anti-tumor, and detoxification of Aconitum carmichaelii. It summarizes the new pharmacological effects of Hezi in recent years, including its effects and mechanisms on clinical conditions such as cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury, renal interstitial fibrosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and ulcerative colitis. It also elaborates on the pharmacological effects that are still being explored, namely the preventive effects of active substances in Hezi on diseases characterized by senile dementia, schizophrenia cognitive impairment, abnormal sensitization of apoptotic or non apoptotic signaling cascades, blood sugar lowering, antidepressant, and anti anxiety. In addition, the processing of Hezi is also closely related to its clinical efficacy. Using different processing methods can change the content of its active ingredients such as gallic acid, and processing it together with different excipients such as iron filings and wolfberry can change the efficacy of Hezi. Hezi itself can also be used as an excipient to process other drugs to reduce toxicity and increase efficacy. On the basis of the increasingly widespread clinical application of Hezi, its own safety should also be taken seriously. The discovery that the tannins contained in Hezi are toxic to the liver provides more basis for the clinical quality testing and application of Hezi.
Hezi can be explored in depth based on the following aspects: Firstly, research on Hezi should focus on the main components of phenolic acids, tannins, and triterpenoids, which can further expand the diversity of Hezi’s chemical composition and explore its pharmacological effects and mechanisms. In addition, many pharmacological principles of Hezi have not been elucidated, especially the pharmacological effects discovered in recent years, and their mechanisms of action are still unclear. However, for the pharmacological mechanisms explored by previous researchers, the substance of action is either a single component or multiple components of Hezi that interact with each other, and it is not yet clear. In addition, the toxicological effects of Hezi are only a preliminary glimpse, and its substances, mechanisms, toxicity levels, and detoxification methods can be further studied. Finally, there should be more in-depth research on the quality evaluation and control of Hezi, the development of unified standards, and the establishment of a complete set of methods for controlling the quality level of Hezi, providing a foundation for further research on Hezi.