Chung, K.-T.; Lin, C.-L.; Chuang, W.-C.; Lee, M.-C.; Chen, L.-W.; Wu, C.-H. Pharmaceutical Screening of Bat Feces and Their Applications and Risks in Traditional Chinese Medicine. Separations2024, 11, 76.
Chung, K.-T.; Lin, C.-L.; Chuang, W.-C.; Lee, M.-C.; Chen, L.-W.; Wu, C.-H. Pharmaceutical Screening of Bat Feces and Their Applications and Risks in Traditional Chinese Medicine. Separations 2024, 11, 76.
Chung, K.-T.; Lin, C.-L.; Chuang, W.-C.; Lee, M.-C.; Chen, L.-W.; Wu, C.-H. Pharmaceutical Screening of Bat Feces and Their Applications and Risks in Traditional Chinese Medicine. Separations2024, 11, 76.
Chung, K.-T.; Lin, C.-L.; Chuang, W.-C.; Lee, M.-C.; Chen, L.-W.; Wu, C.-H. Pharmaceutical Screening of Bat Feces and Their Applications and Risks in Traditional Chinese Medicine. Separations 2024, 11, 76.
Abstract
Bat feces were reported in ancient Chinese medicine books to have the effect of reducing heat and improving eyesight, but the mechanism of vision improvement still needs further research. To this end, we used 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) to analyze the antioxidant capacity of and the types of vitamins in bat feces. We hoped to screen the pharmacological components of bat feces, and to explain the role that these components may play in the treatment of visual deterioration. Our results found that bat feces had a good antioxidant capacity and mainly contain vitamins B1 (thiamine), B2 (riboflavin), B3 (nicotinamide), B3 (nicotinic acid), and B5 (pantothenic acid). Although these vitamins may help maintain the health of the optic nerve and cornea, the vitamin content of bat feces is low, but the heavy metal content is high, as shown using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) analysis. Therefore, we suggest that the use of bat feces as traditional Chinese medicine to improve vision should be strictly restricted.
Keywords
Liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP-MS); Bat feces; Luminous sand; Visual deterioration; Vitamins; Heavy metals
Subject
Medicine and Pharmacology, Medicine and Pharmacology
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
