New Scientific Approach for Natural Medicine

Abstract

Kampo medicine originated from traditional Chinese medicine and has a history of over 2,000 years. It is not considered to be an alternative medicine for people in China, Japan and Korea. Kampo medicine has often been used for the treatment of hepatitis, menopausal disorders such as autonomic-nervous and hormonal manifestation, autonomic imbalance, bronchial asthma, cold syndrome, digestive disorder, atopic dermatitis, eczema, cold sensitivity, allergic rhinitis, and complaints of general malaise etc. These diseases are still difficult to treat with modern medicine, but Kampo is relatively effective in treatment through restoring whole body balance. Each type of Kampo medicine consists of several types of herbs as the formula and each formula has a particular name. For example, a kind of Kampo formulation, Syo-Saiko-To (Xiao-Chai-Hu-Tang in Chinese) consists of 7 kinds of different herbs. Folk medicine and other types of natural medicine generally use a single herb for the treatment. Kampo medicines are generally taken as oral decoctions. In 1979, only 28% of the medical doctors in Japan used Kampo medicines, but that number has increased year by year. In 1993, about 77% and in 2000, 86% of the medical doctors in Japan had used Kampo medicines.KeywordsAtopic DermatitisBasal ForebrainPectic PolysaccharidePassive Avoidance TestChAT ActivityThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.