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A Eucommia chemist who elucidated the molecular mechanism of aucubin against osteoporosis.

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Li Yang is an associate professor and master's supervisor at the College of Life Sciences, Northwest University, having graduated from the university's Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine in 2011. He has long focused on the Eucommia iridoid glycoside aucubin, conducting systematic research on molecular structure, chemical synthesis, drug metabolism, and antibacterial, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, analgesic and anti-osteoporosis activities, and, combined with computer-aided drug design, virtual screening of osteoporosis targets and network pharmacology.

As a backbone member of the completed project 'Research on the efficacy of Eucommia and its comprehensive application and development', he employed techniques such as supercritical fluid extraction to establish high-efficiency green extraction, separation and purification processes for Eucommia. The project reported internationally for the first time the use of single-crystal X-ray diffraction to prove the absolute configuration of aucubin and its derivatives, and confirmed at the molecular, cellular, organ and whole-animal levels the anti-osteoporosis efficacy of Eucommia seed iridoid glycosides. The project published 23 papers (13 SCI-indexed) and obtained 2 granted invention patents, with results recorded in the Shaanxi Science and Technology Yearbook.

Milestones

• In 2012, received National Natural Science Foundation of China funding to study the active components of Eucommia seeds against postmenopausal osteoporosis
• In 2020, led the Shaanxi Provincial key project 'Discovery of the targets of aucubin against osteoporosis and their structural mechanism'

Key Contributions

• Conducted systematic research on the Eucommia iridoid glycoside aucubin, spanning chemical synthesis, drug metabolism and anti-osteoporosis activity
• Participated in a project that, internationally for the first time, used single-crystal X-ray diffraction to prove the absolute configuration and three-dimensional structure of aucubin and its derivatives
• Confirmed that iridoid glycoside components of Eucommia seeds can treat osteoporosis of various causes, proposing aucubin as the molecular material basis of Eucommia's anti-osteoporosis effect
• Led a National Natural Science Foundation of China project (31200253) and a key project of the Shaanxi Provincial Natural Science Basic Research Program (2020JZ-45)
• His team developed a series of health products from Eucommia that obtained 8 health-food approval certificates from the China Food and Drug Administration, all of which were transferred