Panax notoginseng, also known as Tianqi, is a perennial upright herb of the Acanthaceae family, up to 60 cm high, and is a more common Chinese herbal medicine. It originated from the remnants of the paleotropics in the Tertiary period 250 million years ago, mainly distributed in Yunnan, Guangxi, Jiangxi, Sichuan and other places.

Panax Notoginseng is mild in nature and bitter in taste. It has many effects such as reducing swelling and pain, removing blood stasis and hemostasis. It is widely used in clinical treatment of various diseases, such as swelling pain, traumatic bleeding, dissolving leakage, hematochezia, hematemesis, hemoptysis and so on.

With the development of modern medicine, the scope of clinical application of Notoginseng has been continuously expanded, and many patients have applied Notoginseng in treatment, and achieved satisfactory results. In this paper, the research progress on the main pharmacological effects of Panax Notoginseng in recent years was summarized.

Chemical composition

According to the research of most scholars at home and abroad, Panax notoginseng, including flavonoids, hemostatic active ingredients, polysaccharide, saponins, volatile oil and other active components, has good pharmacological effects on the central nervous system, cardiovascular system, blood system and other systems.

Flavonoids:

According to relevant literature reports, there are a small number of flavonoid components such as kaempferol-3-0-galactose-0-glucose (Notoginseng flavonoid glycosides), notoginseng flavonoid B, and quercetin in notoginseng root.

Hemostatic active ingredients:

Notoginseng has notoginseng in this effective hemostatic active ingredient, notoginseng can accelerate the coagulation process, improve the resistance of capillaries, expand capillaries, so that the permeability of capillaries is greatly reduced, so as to achieve the effect of hemostasis. According to the experimental reports of relevant scholars, the advantages of Notoginseng for hemostasis are rapid hemostasis, and the amount of drugs is small, but its disadvantage is that its stability is poor, and it is easily damaged after high temperature steaming.

Panax notoginseng polysaccharide components:

According to the research reports of relevant scholars, Notoginseng polysaccharide A can be isolated from Notoginseng root, which is conducive to regulating the whole body immunity of patients, enhancing resistance, and has a good therapeutic effect on swelling and pain.

Saponin components:

One of the main effective components of Panax Notoginseng is saponins. According to relevant statistics, 20~30 monomer saponins have been isolated from different parts of Panax Notoginseng, and 12% of the components in Panax Notoginseng are saponins.

Volatile oil composition:

Volatile oil is also an effective component of Notoginseng, which has certain biological activity. At present, more than 30 compounds such as ketone, alkane, benzene substitute, fatty acid vinegar and sesquimushrooms have been identified in clinical isolation of volatile total oil of Notoginseng. It has antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, dispelling wind and phlegm, sweating and relieving surface, relieving cough and relieving asthma, and many other effects.

Other ingredients: 

There are antibacterial protein, polyacetynol component, nauol component, alkaloid, protein, fat oil, amino acid and so on.

Pharmacological action

Hemostatic effect:

Notoginseng hemostatic effect has a long history of application in our country, which plays a hemostatic effect is notoginseng, with the advantage of small dosage and fast hemostatic. Animal experiments have proved that different preparations, different administration methods and different application in different animals have higher hemostatic effect. Notoginseng can achieve the effect of hemostasis without leaving stasis. The treatment is more effective for those with bleeding and stasis.

Some studies have shown that after Notoginseng is applied to anesthetized rats by intragastric administration, both the in vitro coagulation time and prothrombin time of rats are shortened. If the portal vein is connected beforehand, the above hemostatic function will disappear. Therefore, we speculate that Notoginseng hemostatic components need to be metabolized by the liver in order to play a hemostatic role in the body.

Antithrombotic function:

Notoginseng not only has the effect of promoting blood circulation and dispersing blood stasis, but also can resist platelet aggregation and achieve anti-thrombotic function. The anti-thrombotic mechanism of panax Notoginseng consists of three steps, namely, anti-platelet aggregation, anti-thrombin and promotion of fibrinolysis. Among them, the mechanism of anti-platelet aggregation is to increase the content of cAMP in platelets in the body, reduce the synthesis of thromboxane A2, further inhibit the release of Ca2+, 5-HT and other active substances promoting platelet aggregation, and finally exert the magic effect of anti-platelet aggregation.

It should be noted that studies have shown that 200mg/kg daily intravenous injection or gavage of Notoginseng in rabbits, It takes more than 20 consecutive days to play a more obvious platelet anti-aggregation effect, it can be seen that when the application of Notoginseng to treat thrombotic diseases, the effect is slow, and sufficient long-term treatment is required, which requires clinicians to pay attention to the application of Notoginseng in the treatment of diseases.

Liver and gallbladder protection:

Panax Notoginseng can resist liver damage. It mainly includes reducing the degree of hepatocyte degeneration and necrosis, reducing the collagen fiber between hepatocytes to reduce liver steatosis, inflammatory cell infiltration, hepatocyte degeneration and necrosis. In addition, the liver also has a certain gallbladder effect, can significantly reduce serum bilirubin, promote bile secretion.

Anti-inflammatory:

The mechanism of the anti-inflammatory function of panax notoginseng is to prevent the increase of the level of free calcium in inflammatory cells, inhibit the activity of thrombusin A in the perfusion fluid, and then reduce the release of dinoprost, and finally achieve the anti-inflammatory purpose. The Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Guangxi Medical University used Notoginseng to prevent stomatitis, and the results showed that the incidence of stomatitis in patients who used Notoginseng to prevent stomatitis was significantly reduced compared with those who did not prevent it, which further confirmed that Notoginseng has a certain anti-inflammatory and detumescence effect.

Anti-aging, anti-oxidation：

Panax notoginseng can significantly increase the activity of superoxide dismutase in brain tissue and blood to reduce oxidized lipids, and the total saponins of panax notoginseng can also significantly inhibit the production of fuscin in heart and brain tissue and lipid peroxides in serum, indirectly clearing free radicals, so as to prevent and treat atherosclerosis and delay aging.

To sum up, Notoginseng contains chemical components have different physiological activities, with the rapid development of science and technology, experts pay attention to Notoginseng and research with its unique medicinal value can eventually become a bright pearl in the treasure house of Chinese medicine.