Method: The participants of this study (N=36) were registered for a bachelor's degree program in TCM in 2016 and enrolled in the Science of Acupuncture and Moxibustion course beginning in September 2018. The students were randomly allocated into two groups: PBL group and conventional group. A self-administered learning satisfaction survey and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem scores were used for data collection. An independent sample t-test was used to compare the results between the two groups. A p-value <0.05 was considered significant.
Results: The results of the learning satisfaction survey and Rosenberg Self-Esteem scores were significantly better in the PBL group than in the conventional group (p<0.05).
Conclusions: PBL appears to be more effective for clinical acupuncture education than the conventional teaching method. However, further studies are needed to identify the mechanisms by which PBL excels in clinical acupuncture education, as well as other related TCM fields.
AIMS OF THE REVIEW: To critically anayze the literature for the botany, traditional uses, phytochemistry, pharmacology, toxicity, and clinical trials of P. sarmentosum in order to provide a scientific consensus for further research and discovery of potential candidate drugs.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: The contents of this review were sourced from electronic databases including PubMed, SciFinder, Web of Science, Science Direct, Elsevier, Google Scholar, Chinese Knowledge On frastructure (CNKI), Wanfang, Chinese Scientific and Technological Periodical Database (VIP), Chinese Biomedical Database (CBM), Cochrane Controlled register of Clinical Trials, Clinical Trials. gov, and Chinese Clinical Trial Registry. Chinese medicine books published over the years were used to elucidate the traditional uses of P. sarmentosum and additional information was also collected from Yao Zhi website (https://db.yaozh.com/).
RESULTS: Phytochemical analyses of the chemical constituents of P. sarmentosum include essential oil, alkaloids, flavonoids, lignans, and steroids. The literature supports the ethnomedicinal uses of P. sarmentosum for the treatment of cold, gastritis, and rheumatoid joint pain, and further confirms its relatively new pharmacological activities, including anti-inflammatory, antineoplastic, and antipyretic activities. Other biological roles such as anti-osteoporosis, antibacterial, antidepressant, anti-atherosclerotic, and hypoglycemic activities have also been reported. However, the methodologies employed in individual studies are limited.
CONCLUSIONS: There is convincing evidence from both in vitro and in vivo studies supporting the traditional use of P. sarmentosum and it is imperative that natural bioactive compounds are examined further. More efforts should be focused on the pharmacodynamic constituents of P. sarmentosum to provide practical basis for quality control, and additional studies are needed to understand the mechanism of their action. Further studies on the comprehensive evaluation of medicinal quality and understandings of serum chemistry, multi-target network pharmacology, and molecular docking technology of P. sarmentosum are of great importance and should be considered.
METHODS: We searched five databases for the period April 2009 to December 2019: China National Knowledge Infrastructure Database, Wanfang Database, China Science and Technology Journal Database, PubMed and Embase. Three types of observational studies on correlation between constitution types and diseases were included: cross-sectional, case-control and cohort studies. Descriptive statistical methods were employed for data analysis.
RESULTS: A total of 1639 clinical studies were identified: 1452 (88.59%) cross-sectional studies, 115 (7.02%) case-control studies and 72 (4.39%) cohort studies covering 30 regions of China and five other countries (Malaysia, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand and France). The collection of studies comprised 19 disease categories and 333 different diseases. The 10 most commonly studied diseases were hypertension, diabetes, stroke, coronary atherosclerotic heart disease (CAHD), sleep disorders, neoplasm of the breast, dysmenorrhea, fatty liver disease, chronic viral hepatitis B and dyslipidemia. We found high distributions for each biased constitution type in different patient populations as follows: Qi-deficiency constitution in stroke, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome and hypertension; Yang-deficiency constitution in female infertility, osteoporosis, irritable bowel syndrome, gonarthrosis and dysmenorrhea; Yin-deficiency constitution in hypertension, diabetes, constipation, female climacteric states and osteoporosis; phlegm- dampness constitution in hypertension, stroke, fatty liver disease, diabetes and metabolic syndrome; damp-heat constitution in acne, chronic gastritis, chronic viral hepatitis B, human papillomavirus infection and hyperuricemia; blood-stasis constitution in CAHD, endometriosis and stroke; Qi-stagnation constitution in hyperplasia and neoplasms of the breast, insomnia, depression and thyroid nodules; and inherited-special constitution in asthma and allergic rhinitis.
CONCLUSION: Eight biased TCM constitutions were closely related to specific diseases, and could be used to guide individualized prevention and treatment. More rigorously designed studies are recommended to further verify the constitution-disease relationship.
OBJECTIVE: To provide an overview and identify the present landscape of hemp research topics, trends, and gaps.
METHODS: A systematic search and analysis strategy according to the preferred reporting items for systematic review and meta-analysis-ScR (PRISMA-ScR) checklist on electronic databases including MEDLINE, OVID (OVFT, APC Journal Club, EBM Reviews), Cochrane Library Central and Clinicaltrials.gov was conducted to include and analyse hemp research articles from 2009 to 2019.
RESULTS: 65 primary articles (18 clinical, 47 pre-clinical) were reviewed. Several randomised controlled trials showed hempseed pills (in Traditional Chinese Medicine formulation MaZiRenWan) improving spontaneous bowel movement in functional constipation. There was also evidence suggesting benefits in cannabis dependence, epilepsy, and anxiety disorders. Pre-clinically, hemp derivatives showed potential anti-oxidative, anti-hypertensive, anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetic, anti-neuroinflammatory, anti-arthritic, anti-acne, and anti-microbial activities. Renal protective effects and estrogenic properties were also exhibited in vitro.
CONCLUSION: Current evidence on hemp-specific interventions are still preliminary, with limited high quality clinical evidence for any specific therapeutic indication. This is mainly due to the wide variation in test item formulation, as the multiple variants of this plant differ in their phytochemical and bioactive compounds. Future empirical research should focus on standardising the hemp plant for pharmaceutical use, and uniformity in experimental designs to strengthen the premise of using hemp in medicine.