Peng-Fei Tu

School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Peking University

One hundred years, natural products arean important source of active of leading compounds and new drugs discovery.Discovery of a large number of drugs, such as quinine, morphine, artemisinin and texol, is the strong evidence.China is a vast region, complex geographical environment. Rich biological resources, and traditional Chinese medicineswhich used in clinic for more than several thousand years, arethe rich treasure of discovery of active compounds and innovative drugs.

Based on the resources of natural products , especially TCMs, ethnicandfolk medicines, using modern chemical and biological technology, our group have systematically researched the chemical constituents and biological activities of more than 60 kinds of TCMs and natural medicines. We had found the phenylethanoid glycosides (PhGs)from genus Cistanchehave significant effects of anti-Alzheimer's disease (AD),anti-vascular dementia (VD), and anti-Parkinson's disease (PD), and developed PhGs from Cistanchetubulosa as a new drugto treat vascular dementia.Thesaponins, xanthones and saccharide esters from Polygala plants show the effects of nerve cell protection, inhibition of Aβ secretion and anti-AD. The saponinsisolated from Ilexkudingchahave the effects of hypolipidemic, anti-atherosclerosis, and been developeda treatment of hyperlipidemia drugs. A series of novel dimericsesquiterpenesfrom Artemisia plants show obvious activity in tumor cytotoxic and anti-inflammatory. The flavonoids from the resin of the woodof Dracaeancochinchinensis(Longxuejie) have the effects of anti-thrombotic, inhibition of platelet aggregation, improving blood rheology, and been developed into a new drug for treatment of ischemic stroke. Its flavans showobvious activity of anti-fungal. Through structure modification and activity screening,a compound with strong antifungal activity had been obtain, and its mechanism been initially clarified.