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Bone-Protective Chinese Herbs: The Story of Fructus Ligustri Lucidi

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Nutritional Influences on Bone Health
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Abstract

Fructus Ligustri Lucidi (FLL) is a kidney-tonifying herbal medicine that has been used for alleviating postmenopausal syndromes and strengthening bones according to traditional Chinese medicine theory. Studies in our laboratory have demonstrated the action of FLL extract on improving bone property, enhancing calcium balance, and regulating vitamin D metabolism in aged normal and OVX rats. The present study aims to identify the bioactive ingredients that account for the positive actions of FLL on bone and the calcium-vitamin D axis in aged female rats. The results suggested that the combination of oleanolic acid and ursolic acid can be regarded as the active constituents of FLL and they might be developed into an orally administrated regimen for prevention and treatment of osteoporosis.

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Acknowledgment

We thank the State Key Laboratory of Chinese Medicine and Molecular Pharmacology (Incubation) Shenzhen and PolyU Food Safety and Technology Research Center for their support. This work was supported by the University Grants Committee of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (POLYU 5402/04M), National Natural Science Foundation of China (81528024), and Research Studentship of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University for Dr. Xiaoli Dong and Dr. Sisi Cao.

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Correspondence to Man-Sau Wong .

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Cao, S., Dong, XL., Zhang, Y., Wong, MS. (2019). Bone-Protective Chinese Herbs: The Story of Fructus Ligustri Lucidi. In: Weaver, C., Bischoff-Ferrari, H., Daly, R., Wong, MS. (eds) Nutritional Influences on Bone Health. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98464-3_16

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98464-3_16

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