In an era of increasing interest in the potential health benefits of medicinal foods, the need to assess their safety and potential toxicity remains a critical concern. While these natural remedies have garnered substantial attention for their therapeutic potential, a comprehensive understanding of their effects on living organisms is essential. We examined 316 herbal extracts to determine their potential nematocidal attributes in Caenorhabditis elegans. Approximately 16% of these extracts exhibited the capacity to induce diminished survival rates and larval arrest, establishing a correlation between larval arrest and overall worm viability. Certain extracts led to an unexpected increase in male nematodes, accompanied by a discernible reduction in DAPI-stained bivalent structures and perturbed meiotic advancement, thereby disrupting the conventional developmental processes. Notably, Onobrychis cornuta and Veratrum lobelianum extracts activated a DNA damage checkpoint response via the ATM/ATR and CHK-1 pathways; hindering germline development. Our LC‒MS analysis revealed jervine in V. lobelianum and nine antitumor compounds in O. cornuta. Interestingly, linoleic acid replicated phenotypes induced by O. cornuta exposure, including an increased level of pCHK-1 foci, apoptosis, and the MAPK pathway. We observed that mutants in the MAPK pathway suppressed the reduction in worm survival, emphasizing its role in survivability, meiotic progression, and DNA damage checkpoint-mediated apoptosis. This study reveals complex interactions between herbal extracts and C. elegans processes, shedding light on potential antitumor effects and mechanisms. The findings provide insights into the complex landscape of herbal medicine's impact on a model organism, offering implications for broader applications.

In recent years, solid state terahertz (THz) modulators have obtained rapid progress with the widespread use of two-dimensional (2D) materials in the field of THz; however, challenges remain in preparing flexible THz modulators. In this study, flexible ferromagnetic nematic materials were prepared by doping thermotropic nematic liquid crystals 5CB into magnetic fluids, and the influence of hydrogen bonding in water was reduced by a self-made cyclic olefin copolymer (COC) microfluidic chip. THz modulation characteristics of magnetic fluid and ferromagnetic nematic liquid crystal (FNLC) under the induction of external magnetic field were compared using a THz time domain spectroscopy system. Under the action of a 91 mT magnetic field, the magnetic fluid has a maximum modulation depth (MD) of 54%. Under the same magnetic field, the maximum MD of the ferromagnetic nematic liquid crystal materials increase to 78% because of the rearrangement of Fe3O4 nanoparticles induced by the topological defect of the liquid crystal. We demonstrate that the magneto-optical effect is significantly enhanced in the ferromagnetic nematic liquid crystal hybrid system. This strategy of doping thermotropic nematic liquid crystals to enhance the magneto-optical effect has great potential for THz filtering, modulation, and sensing applications.