The American Journal of Chinese Medicine

This article deals with the ethnobotanical aspects of the Chinese motherwort. Since time immenmorial the Chinese people have used various parts of motherwort to meet different physical needs. By the time a written language was developed and the medical uses were recorded, motherwort was treated as an article of superior quality. At present, under the name of i-mu-ts'ao, the plant is used for improving bloodflow both by official physicians and herbal practitioners throughout the country as well as by villagers in isolated areas.

Accroding to Chinese classical literature on materia medica, the early uses were limited to the parts of the plant which met the most obvious needs of the prehisotrical people in their struggle for existence - food and pain reliever. Evidently, in their search for food, the ancient people found that the four nutlets contained in the dry and spinose calyx of the Chinese motherwort resemble the sesame seed in size and oil content. They gathered them and used them for food in similar manner as with the sesame. Consequently, they discovered the good effects to the eyesight, the improvement of strength, and the uplift of spirit. These discoveries led to the use of the seed of the species as an eye medicine for improving the eyesight, and as a tonic for the increase of strength and the elevation of medicine for improving the eyesight, and as a tonic for the increase of strength and the elevation of spirit. Contagious skin diseases caused serious problems for the ancient people. The use of the leafy shoot for a bath to release the discomfort of itches and shingles was also recorded in the 42-word first medicinal second of the species in the earliest known Chinese materia medica - the Shen-nung pen-ts'ao-ching.

Translators of the Chinese classics have included the records of i-mu-ts'ao. According to my knowledge, these works were all partial translations with the selections of the medicinal properties and the omissions on the methods of preparation. They have the outline and abandon the details. Consquently most of the them are not clear. In order to provide complete information on the discoveries of the ancient Chinese people on the uses of i-mu-ts'ao, all the records up to the end of the sixteenth century are organized and translated under the following headings: (1) ecological and morphological observations; (2) preparations; (3) physical and therapeutical properties; (4) special prescriptions for interanl and external uses - including pills for pregnant women, for mothers post partum, as an emmenagogue, and as a corrective agent, condensed liquid, powder, fresh juice, baby bath and washes, poultices, charred shoots, gargles, drops and cakes; (5) other economic uses - including cosmetics and food; and (6) etymology.

The distribution of i-mu-ts'ao is significant in photogeography and in the nomenclature of the species. I-mu-ts'ao was purposely introduced from South China to Linnaeus in Sweden before the publication of the Species Plantarum in 1753. Linnaeus planted the seed in the botanical garden of the University of Uppsala. Due to the differences in temperature, length of the growing season and the periodicity of the sun between Sweden and South China, the plant flowered but did not fruit in Uppsala. Linnaeus observed this fact and assumed it being a male plant of Leonurus sibiricus L. In his book, after China, he put a sign () indicating male.

I-mu-ts'ao was unintentionally introduced by Portuguese with the wrappings of Chinese products - silk, sugar, medicine, tea, porcelain, etc. - to the sugar plantations in Brazil. There are the temperature, growing season, periodicity of the sun and the rainfall are comparable to the maritime provinces of China and the species got established and became a weed. A British traveler saw the species in Brazil in the late 1820s and seeds to London. When the plant flowered, Robert Sweet named and described it as Leonurus heterophyllus Sweet. Now in China this name is accepted as the specific epithet of i-mu-ts'ao. Leonurus heterophyllus Sweet (1827) is a latter homonym of Stachys artemisia Lour. (1790) and it cannot be a legitimate name for i-mu-ts'ao.

The genuine species of Leonurus sibiricus L. is typified by a specimen in Linnaeus's herbarium (marked 739.6), collected from Siberia by Gmelin. Linnaeus's Chinese specimen (now numbered 739.7) is conspecific with the population studied, sampled and described by Loureiro in Canton-Macao area under the name Satachys artemisia Lour. Now the proper scientific name for i-mu-ts'ao of the maritime provinces of China is Leomurus artemisia (Lour.) S.Y. Hu.

Is the development of i-mu-ts'ao, there are marked morphological changes from the juvenile form to the flowering stage and to the fruiting plant. In addition to the systematic translation of the ancient Chinese records on the uses of i-mu-ts'ao, the mapping and the interpretation of the geographical distribution of the species, the comments of certain names in Chinese and the correction of the scientific name, an illustrated account of the field observation made in Chung Chi College, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, is given.

In the People's Republic of China, a unique method based on Chinese drugs, including yin-ch'en and chih-tzu, has been established for the treatment of acute cholelithiasis, which is based on traditional Chinese knowledge concerning the treatment of jaundice. Through the many Chinese drugs appearing in prescriptions of jaundice found in standard medical collections in Chinese history, clarification of the classical Chinese jaundice cure is attempted in the following paper.

Seeds of Cassia tora Linn. (Leguminosae) are known in Chinese medicinal herbal practice as Chueh-ming-tzu. Aqueous and methanol extracts from the these seeds elicit hypotensive effects on anesthetized rats. Preliminary phytochemical studies show that the active hypotensive principles are derived from the kernel of the seed and consist of mainly glycosides.

The Chinese medicinal herb Chueh-ming-tzu, seeds of Cassia tora(Leguminosae) Linn, elicits hypotensive effects in anesthetized rats. Experimental results indicate that the hypotensive effect of the Cassia tora extract possibly involves a vagal reflex which reciprocally alters the vasomotor tone of the centrally emanating sympathetic nervous system. It is shown that the capacity of the Cassia tora extract to reduce blood pressure is significantly reduced in vagotomized rats and that hypotensive effects are greatly antagonized in rats whose sympathetic nervous systems are interrupted by transection of the spinal cord.

Induction of labor by acupuntuure electro-stimulation was carried out in 31 patients. This was successful in 21 cases. The pattern of uterine contractions induced in these patients was similar to that in normal labor. No serious fetal or maternal complications occurred. The delay between the commencement of stimulation and the onset of contractions suggests that a humoral mechanism may be involved.

A course of 10 daily acupuncture treatments was given to 200 patients who suffered from chronic pain syndromes of at least one year duration and the result assessed at the end of the course of treatment and after an interval of at least 2 months. Treatments were individualized using needling of body loci distally and near the site of pain, and ear acupuncture. In 38 patients suffering from chronic headaches, including 13 cases of migraine-type headache, 81% reported an improvement in their condition, but only one patient was pain free for the 2-month observation period. In 162 patients with other chronic pain problems, 99 or 61% were improved or pain free at the end of treatment; in 69 of these a worthwhile degree of improvement persisted over the observation period of 2 months. Thirteen percent of all patients did not respond to acupuncture and in 26% the response was considered as transient only. Daily treatments are not more effecitve than weekly or biweekly treatments. Pain in the neck and shoulder region, in the knee and low back pain responded to acupuncture with prolonged improvement in over 50% of the patients treated. Facial pain syndromes and pain in the region of the trunk were least responsive and only 3 of 11 patients with post-herpetic neuralgia reported still having less pain after 2 months. Needling of effective loci and particuarly ear needling often causes an instantaneous reduction or disappearance of pain; the speed of this response can only be explained by a mechanism within the nervous system. Based on our experience acupuncture represents a useful therapeutic modality in the management of pain.

This is Part 1 of a study whose purpose is two-fold, that is, to arrive at a classification of diseases under investigation according to their responsiveness to acupuncture therapy, and to discuss and identify the most effective loci for the diseases investigated. In Part I of this study, over 500 patients afflicted with hyperthyroidism, trigeminal neuralgia or intercostal neuralgia were treated with acupuncture therapy. The results of the treatment, together with the selection of acupuncture loci and the techniques of needle manipulation are reported in detail. Over 80% of the patients were found to have made excellent improvement. The three diseases are therefore classified as diseases on which acupuncture therapy yields excellent results.

This paper presents three brief case histories from a three year study comparing electro-convulsive therapy (ECT) with acupuncture treatment in functional psychoses. Acupuncture effects were augmented by the simultaneous, non-painful electrical stimulation of eight acupuncture needles. The resulting treatment is called Acupuncture Electric Stimulation Therapy (Acu-EST). Each patient was utilized as her own control, treating exacerbations of depression alternately with ECT and Acu-EST, Acu-EST was found to be a panacea and did not enable the discountinuation of antidepressant and neuroleptic medication. Individual Acu-EST treatments were often less effective than individual ECT treatments. However, series of Acu-EST did assist in producing significant remissions in depressive symptomatology. Because it did not produce the temporary disabling memory defects which occurred with ECT, Acu-EST was more easily adaptable to outpatient treatment.

A new technique to insert acupuncture needles into the tissue without touching the needle with the fingers of the acupuncturist was developed by the authors. It is easy to perform and completely eliminates the problem of contamination. The bending of the needle is less frequent and the pain sensation of the patient is also minimized.

This article concerns the changes in Chinese medical education which have taken place since the Cultural Revolution, specifically the relationship between political ideology and actual practice. It synthesizes the documentation which appeared in a series of articles devoted to a public discussion on the direction and emphasis in medical and health work published in Renmin Ribao (People's Daily), Peking, from December 8, 1968 to November 4, 1975. The major themes of the public discussion are: (a) medical and health work serving the masses; (b) insistence on the "correct" revolutionary line; (c) combining theory with practice; (d) unity of traditional Chinese and Western medicine; (e) putting prevention first; and (f) emphasis on medical personnel retaining the characteristics of the working people. This is followed by a transcript prepared by the authors from a tape recording made during a visit to Zhongshan Medical College of Guangzhou (Canton) on November 5, 1974 describing the relationship between political ideology and actual practice in the field of contemporary Chinese medical education.