Copdis Rhizoma is a well known medicial herb for its anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, and analgesic pharmacological activities. For external use, in natural medicine Coptis Rhizome has shown effectiveness in treating burn, acne, skin ulcers, neurodermatitis and other types of eczema.
Literatures show that Coptis Rhizoma inhibites the expression of proinflammatory cytokines and cell surface molecules involved in inflammatory responses at the transcriptional level1,2. Remppis et al concluded that Copdis Rhizoma inhibited lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced monocyte chemoattractant protein (MCP) –1 production in vitro through an AP-1 and NFkB-dependent pathway3. Yan et al reported that Coptis Rhizoma has antiseptic action against Staphylococcus aureus4. The anti-inflammatory action is mediated mainly by berberine, the major alkaloid constituent of Coptis Rhizoma.
Hu and colleagues reported that Coptidis Ehizoma inhibited the growth of periodontopathogenic bacteria5. Chin et al demonstrated that Coptis Rhizoma had anti-herpes simplex virus effects via interfering with the herpes simplex virus replication cycle6. Most recently Kim et al conducted a study to determine the antifungal activities of Coptis Rhizoma extract against different Candida species. Their results showed that the extract of Coptidis Rhizoma had anticandidial activity against Candida albicans, C. tropicalis and C. glabrata7.
Tiong et al demonstrated that the mechanism of analgesic effect of Coptis Rhizoma extract was through decreasing serotonin (5HT) release and cholecystokinin (CCK) expression in animal study8.
Coptis Rhizoma is one of the active ingredients in the Unitech Medical® CamWell™ Herb to Soothe™ botanical cream, that can be found here.
References
- Kim JM, et al. Identification of anti-inflammatory target genes of Rhizoma coptidis extract in lipopolysaccharide-stimulated RAW264.7 murine macrophage-like cells. J Ethnopharmacol. 2010 Jul 20;130(2):354-62.
- Lou T, et al. Berberine inhibits inflammatory response and ameliorates insulin resistance in hepatocytes. Inflammation. 2011 Dec;34(6):659-67.
- Remppis A, et al. Rhizoma coptidis inhibits LPS-Induced MCP-1/CCL2 Production in Murine Macrophages via an AP-1 and NFkB-Dependent Pathway. Mediators of Inflammation. Hindawi Publishing Corporation. 2010.
- Yan M, et al. Observation on inhibitory effect of coptis alone and its combination with scute and licorice on the growth of Staphylococcus aureus. J of Chinese Herbs. 1998;23(6):375-377.
- Hu JP, et al. Coptidis rhizome inhibits growth and proteases of oral bacteria. Oral Dis. 2000 Sep;6(5):297-302.
- Chin LW, et al. Anti-herpes simplex virus effects of berberine from Coptidis rhizome, a major component of a Chinese herbal medicine, Ching-Wei-San. Arch Virol. 2010 Dec;155(12):1933-41.
- Kim JY, Yi Y and Lim Y. Antifungal activity of coptidis rhizome against Candida species. Journal of Medicinal Plants Research. 2012; 6(12):2295-2298.
- Tjong Y, Ip S, Lao L, et al. Analgesic Effect of Coptis chinensis rhizomes (Coptidis Rhizoma) Extract on Rat Model of Irritable Bowel Syndrome.