It has been reported that berberine is valuable for long-term treatment of ventricular premature beats (VPBs) and leads to a decrease in mortality for patients with congestive heart failure (CHF). In order to improve its therapeutic value and reduce its side effects, it is necessary to study the relationship between its activity and plasma concentration in patients with CHF. Patients with CHF w...

The dried bark of Phellodendron chinense has been used as a traditional herbal medicine to remove damp heat, relieve consumptive fever, and cure dysentery and diarrhea. In the present study, we performed quantitative analyses of the two components of P. chinense, phellodendrine and berberine, using high-performance liquid chromatography. A 70% ethanol extract of P. chinense was prepared and the...

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the second leading cause of cancer-related death and its prognosis remains poor due to the high risk of tumor recurrence and metastasis. Berberine (BBR) is a natural compound derived from some medicinal plants, and accumulating evidence has shown its potent anti-tumor activity with diverse action on tumor cells, including inducing cancer cell death and blocking...

The androgen receptor (AR) is critical in the normal development and function of the prostate, as well as in prostate carcinogenesis. Androgen deprivation therapy is the mainstay in the treatment of advanced prostate cancer; however, after an initial response, the disease inevitably progresses to castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). Recent evidence suggests that continued AR activation,...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effects of berberine on the menstrual pattern, ovulation rate, hormonal and metabolic profiles in anovulatory Chinese women with polycystic ovary syndrome. METHODS Berberine 0.4 g three times per day was given for four months to 102 anovulatory Chinese women with polycystic ovary syndrome. The menstrual pattern, ovulation rate, hormonal and metabolic profiles were co...

BACKGROUND Leishmaniasis has been identified as a major public health problem in tropical and sub-tropical countries. The present study was aimed to investigate antileishmanial effects of various extracts of Berberis vulgaris also its active compoenent, berberine against Leishmania tropica and L. infantum species on in vitro experiments. METHODS In this study in vitro antileishmanial activity...

The aim of this study was to clarify the mechanisms of apoptosis, cytotoxicity, DNA damage and fragmentation, as well as the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and Ca+2, induced by berberine in human promyelocytic leukemia HL-60 and murine myelomonocytic leukemia WEHI-3 cells. The levels of Bcl-2 and Bax, the changes of mitochondria membrane potential (MMP), cytochrome c release and ac...

Berberine exhibits antiproliferative or cytotoxic effects against various cancers. ROS and wild-type p53 play a critical role in berberine-induced cytotoxic effects. In this study, we investigated the correlation between XAF1 and functional p53 in EBV-transformed B cells or cancerous B cells after treatment with berberine. Berberine decreased cell viability and induced apoptosis through a mitoc...

I read with great interest the recent paper by Ji and Shen [1]. Berberine may be of considerable benefit in a number of psychiatric disorders especially in Alzheimer’s disease. Berberine inhibits the activation of nuclear factor kappaB by blocking the “mitogen-activated protein kinase” pathway [2]. Simultaneous inhibition of the phosphoinositide 3-kinase/protein kinase B pathway is also seen. T...

BACKGROUND Berberine hydrochloride is a conventional component in Chinese medicine, and is characterized by a diversity of pharmacological effects. However, due to its hydrophobic properties, along with poor stability and bioavailability, the application of berberine hydrochloride was hampered for a long time. In recent years, the pharmaceutical preparation of berberine hydrochloride has improv...