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Review of research on Dendrobium, a prized folk medicine

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Abstract

Medicinal plants of the Dendrobium genus are highly prized, and hence, methodologies have been developed to authenticate Dendrobium drugs from its adulterants. Many bioactive constituents of Dendrobium species have been identified. The macromolecules included lectins; the enzymes chalcone synthase, sucrose synthase, and cytokinin oxidase; and polysaccharides. The polysaccharides display immunomodulatory and hepatoprotective activities. Alkaloids exhibit antioxidant, anticancer, and neuroprotective activities. Other compounds manifest antioxidant, anticancer, and immunomodulatory.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by grants (funding from Stanley Ho Alumni Challenge of the University of Hong Kong (no. 20830019) and funds from Oriental Int Health Products Co., Ltd. (no 20006390)). We thank Mr. Randy Cheung for secretarial assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong, China

    Tzi Bun Ng & Jack Ho Wong

  2. School of Chinese Medicine, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Sassoon Road, Hong Kong, China

    Jingyi Liu, Stephen Cho Wing Sze, Yao Tong & Kalin Yanbo Zhang

  3. Institute of Plant Virology, Fujian Province Key Laboratory of Plant Virology, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, Fujian, 350002, China

    Xiujuan Ye

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  1. Tzi Bun Ng
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  2. Jingyi Liu
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  3. Jack Ho Wong
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  4. Xiujuan Ye
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  5. Stephen Cho Wing Sze
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  6. Yao Tong
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  7. Kalin Yanbo Zhang
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Correspondence to Kalin Yanbo Zhang.

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Tzi Bun Ng and Jingyi Liu contributed equally to this article.

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Ng, T.B., Liu, J., Wong, J.H. et al. Review of research on Dendrobium, a prized folk medicine. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 93, 1795–1803 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-011-3829-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-011-3829-7

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