The Research Of Medicinal Properties And Compatibility Rule About Tiandong

Objective: The study organizes systematically the herbs and other related medicalliteratures in history on Tiandong. It identifies the medicinal properties and explorescompatibility principle of Tiandong, which may provide solid and reliable documentarybasis for its clinical compatibility and application and further broaden the prospect of itsclinical application.Methods：The study establishes a database of medicinal properties and prescriptionsabout Tiandong, and analyses objectively the properties and prescriptions principle bycombining the TCM literature and modern statistics. It takes Compendium of ChineseMateria Medica as the literature source and collects related literature of Chinese materiamedica to establish database in the software excel. With the help of frequency statistics incomputer, it identifies the medicinal properties of Tiandong according to the literaturerecord with highest frequency. It works out the entry standards of the prescriptions withTiandong, then selects the prescription from Dictionary of Prescriptions, and counts theirfrequency in practice in history and their efficacy, thus exploring the compatibilityprinciple and common herb pairs.Results: Among the153herbal documents collected about Tiandong,131are aboutits properties, in which the most are about its “cold” property, accounting for35.9%.145are about its smell,52.4%of which are about its smell of “bitter or sweet”.88are about itsmeridian tropism,77.3%of which hold that it s attributed to Lung or kidney meridian.45are about its function,86.7%of which think that it has “light smell and strong flavor”, andis “yin within yang” with the function of “descending”.72are about its toxicity, all ofwhich define it as non-toxic medicine.In Han and Tang Dynasties doctors paid special attention to its function of tonification, and it was used widely for beauty and health care. During Song and Jin and YuanDynasties, it was used mainly to treat cough, asthma and other pulmonary diseases. InMing and Qing dynasties doctors regarded it as an important medicine to nourish yin andmoisten, and used it to remove abdominal mass and treat sudden rheumatism hemiplegia,but there were not many recordings about its application.From studying modern literature, we find that modern application of Tiandong ismore than in ancient time. It is applied with other herbs to treat diseases in internalmedicine, gynecology, ophthalmology and stomatology and there are ways of itsapplication. Modern pharmacological experiments show that it has many curative functions,such as anti-aging, anti-free radical, reducing the level of blood glucose, relieving cough,eliminating phlegm, relieving asthma, anti-tumor and anti-thrombus.Through the statistics of the575prescriptions containing Tiandong in differentperiods and its application frequency and function, we find that besides Tiandong, themedicine categories with highest frequency in past dynasties were those with the functionsof clearing heat, nourishing yin, nourishing qi, nourishing blood and relieving cough. Thetop five categories of medicine are the same with those in Jin, Yuan, Ming, Qing dynastiesand modern times, only with a slight difference in order.Conclusion：The study shows that ancient literature on materia medica reached aconsensus on the medicinal property of Tiandong. It has cold property, has smell of “bitteror sweet”, and belongs to Lung or kidney meridian. It has “light smell and strong flavor”,and is “yin within yang” with the function of “descending”. It is a kind of non-toxicmedicine. The sorting out of ancient literature shows that it has such functions as tonifyingqi, beauty and health care, relieving cough, nourishing yin and moisten, removingabdominal mass. Modern pharmacological experiments show that it has the functions ofanti-aging, relieving cough and anti-tumor, which provides scientific evidence for ancientdoctors’ understanding of it. Following the ancient doctors’ understanding of its medicinalproperty, efficacy and application, and with the help of modern pharmacologicalexperiments, modern doctors have a deep understanding of it and may have a widerclinical application of it.Through the statistics of application frequency and function of the prescriptionscontaining it, we find that the compatibility principle of Tiandong is to combine with theherbs that may clear heat, nourish yin, nourish qi, nourish blood and relieve cough. It cangenerally make up herb pairs with Maimendong, shengdihuang, shudihuang, renshen, zhimu and jiegeng.By means of sorting out the literature of Tiandong both in ancient times and moderntimes, the study identifies the medicinal property of it, which lays a foundation for clinicalapplication. It clarifies the history and development of the efficacy and application ofTiandong, which is helpful to widen its application prospect. It discusses the compatibilityprinciple of Tiandong and its common herb pairs, which will provide evidence for theeffective and reasonable application of Tiandong in clinic practice in the future.