| ObjectiveThe study was aimed at verifing the origin of medicinal cuisine and its actual meaning, and special articles from diet books in ancient times were referred to comb the situation of containing herbs and explore the clinical application and advantages and disadvantages, in order to provide theoretical reference for the academy and healthy industrial development of medicinal cuisine.MethodsThe study used the research of history, philology, logic and statistics, combined with multidisciplinary knowledge such as diet nutrition, Chinese materia medica and health food, to research and analyse on the specific issues of adding herb into diet. The name of medicinal cuisine was retrived in Twenty-five History, Annotation to Thirteen Classics and Zhong Hua Yi Dian CD, and then I verified their precise meanings. To do comparative analysis on the definition of "medicinal cuisine" and "diet therapy", I referred to five kinds of references including 18 textbooks,4 monographs,32 medicated diet dictionaries,6 books on scientific terminology and 3 industry norms during 30 years. For the convenience and reflecting the situation of ancients putting medicas into food, this paper selected 29 special articles titled dietary therapy,diet therapy,diet,food and so on from diet books ranging from the Tang Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, retrived them page by page and page, sorted the situation of medica containing and calculated the property, taste, toxicity and the main effect of the drug used, so as the cooking style, type of diet and the main treatment certificate of the diet containing herbs,and discussed related issues.ResultsThe name "medicinal cuisine" was not from medical books but Chinese classics. It was firstly recorded in Lie Nv Zhuan of Hou Han Shu (Book of the Later Han). The name was mentioned 19 times in the Twenty-five History, one time in Annotation to Thirteen Classics. In those books medicinal cuisine was referred to as medicine and diet, rather than add herbs in diet. By referring to five kinds of references including 18 textbooks,4 monographs,32 medicated diet dictionaries,6 books on scientific terminology and 3 industry norms, it was found that the meaning of "medicinal cuisine" and "diet therapy"were ambiguous even contradictory.Based on records and statistics, I found that the diet drug proportion was 6.61% in the Tang Dynasty, and others were below 5%, proportion of the Yuan Dynasty was the lowest(4.05%). In 20 diet medica books, the proportion of herb was higher than 5% in 7 books(35%), and 13 books lower than 5%(65%).Meng Shen’s Shi Liao Ben Cao in the Tang Dynasty had the highest drug proportion (8.29%), and Ying Lin’s Pu Shui Zhai Shi Zhi Guang Yao in the Ming Dynasty had the lowest proportion(1.34%). The proportion were higer in the Tang Dynasty where the first diet book appeared. To some extent, it indicated that there was less clear and strict difference between drug and food in the Tang Dynasty than later dynasties.In the Song Dynasty and Yuan Dynasty medicated diet proportion was higher,37.60% and 38.74% respectively, followed by 32.44%of the Ming Dynasty.The Tang Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty had the lower proportion,16.39% and 17.35%, respectively. In 15 diet prescription books, the proportion of medicated diet in 3 books were more than 50%(20%), and 12 books were less than 50%(80%). Three higher percentage of books all had special backgrounds:Mu Shi-Xi’s Shi Wu Ji Yao in the Ming Dynasty had only one prescription and it contained herbs; Sun Si-Miao’s Qian Jin Yi Fang in the Tang Dynasty had less number of prescriptions; the other was the Hu Si-Hui’s Yin Shan Zheng Yao in the Yuan Dynasty, in which the application of amomum was more often. In the remaining 12 books,Tai Ping Sheng Hui Fang had the highest percentage of herb in the Song Dynasty,the lowest was Shen Li-Long’s Shi Wu Ben Cao Hui Zuan in the Qing Dynasty. And from the Song to Qing Dynasty the proportion reduced gradually. Therefore,as a whole, the culture of drugs into the food was more prevalent in the Song Dynasty, and then gradually decayed.Drugs in diet medica books were mainly plant herbs(61.96%-80.45%), and the biased drugs accounted for most (77.17%-91.11%). The top three tastes in the frequency were bitter(28.76%), sweet(24.68%) and samba(20.60%). The highest proportion of toxic drugs was in the Tang Dynasty,15.25%. And the proportion of the other three dynasties were lower than 7%. The top three main efficacy in frequency of herbs:clearing and dissipating heat-phlegm(6), tonifying yang (3) and divergent wind chill(3) in the Tang Dynasty; regulating qi(4), tonifying yang(3) and warming interior(3) in the Yuan Dynasty; tonifying yang(11), regulating qi(10) and diuresis on leaching(7) in the Ming Dynasty; regulating qi (13),tonifying yang (10) and XiFeng antispasmodic(7) in the Qing Dynasty. The top three main efficacy in frequency of all herbs in four dynasties were regulating qi(28), tonifying yang (27) and dissipating heat-phlegm(14).Drugs in diet description books were mainly plant herbs (71.06%～85.92%); and the biased drugs accounted for most (84.85%～93.55%). The top three tastes in the frequency were samba(29.79%), bitter(28.63%) and sweet(25.73%). The highest proportion of toxic drugs was in the Sang Dynasty,12.98%.And the proportion of the other four dynasties were lower than 9%.The top three main efficacy in frequency of herbs:diuresis on leaching(3), divergent wind chill(3) and warming interior(2) in the Tang Dynasty; tonifying yang(8), diuresis on leaching(5) and warming interior(4) in the Song Dynasty;warming interior(7), diuresis on leaching(5) and divergent wind chill (4) in the Yuan Dynasty; tonifying yang (8),tonifying yin(4) and regulating qi (4), in the Ming Dynasty; tonifuing yang (11), tonifying yin(5) and divergent wind chill(4) in the Qing Dynasty. The top three main efficacy in frequency of all herbs in five dynasties were tonifying yang (36), diuresis on leaching(19) and divergent wind chill(18).Most of the herbs in those books diet medica books and diet description books also belonged to drugs at that time. The presence of the toxic drugs may have something with the therapy for severe diseases, breed confusion about the type and clerical errors,and the dose and use were controlled. The main dietary types were the rice and flour food, dish and wine,and the main cuisine is boiling,dipping and brewing.Medicated diet prescretions were maily for healing. The top three main disease in frequency of those prescretions:consumptive disease(9), rheumatism(6) and stranguria(4) in the Tang Dynasty; consumptive disease(47),dysentery(12) and emesis(13) in the Song Dynasty; consumptive disease(30), spleen disease (15) and stroke(5) in the Yuan Dynasty; rheumatism (16),consumptive disease(8), and wine poisoning(6) in the Ming Dynasty; cough(15), rheumatism(13) and consumptive disease(9). About the main disease of all medicated diet prescretions in the five dynasties, the most was consumptive disease in terms of a single disease. And spleen and stomach disease was the most one in terms of Zang-fu disease, including 6 in the Tang Dynasty,41 in the Song Dynasty,33 in the Yuan Dynasty,16 in the Ming Dynasty, and 18 in the Qing Dynasty.Those on the health preservation was a few proportion(4.00%).Some of the drug may occur breed mixed phenomenon, primarily between varieties that morphology, odor or efficacy is similar,such as Xanthium and Curl,Akebia and Guanmutong, Evodia and Food cornel. The cause of this situation may be due to the limited scientific and technological level, people only used visual observation to distinguish the difference between plants. At the same time,printing book was a very huge project.And many books had the handwritten versions, so error was inevitable.Plus many herbal medicine monographs were already lost, the modern versions were derived from a complex series of other herbal later writings. Thus, the accuracy of some of Materia Medicas need to be verified.Furthermore, the rise and fall of taking ore medicines had a profound impact on the use of ore drugs in therapeutic. Stone medicine to treat the disease, on the one hand was to play its own efficacy, on the other hand had also played its role of micronutrient supplementation. But some ore medicines contain heavy metals or other toxic substances that may cause side effects, so the application required strict control, beware of heavy metal poisoning hazards and toxic substances.Moreover, in the Song Dynasty, the prevalence of food and medicine with commercialization led to increased ratio of medicines in therapeutic, although this was the Chinese medicine’s booming performance, but drinking a lot of drug containing spicy soup tea or cold water for a long time, would inevitably lead to the unbalance among yin,yang,qi and blood, not only did not play the effect of preventing and curing diseases, but also caused the new disease. Subsequent Yuan and Ming Dynasty was not in vogue again. In the Qing Dynasty prescriptions with medicine and food were all prescribed by the doctors according to the specific circumstances of the patient.The drug’s bias would be greater than the daily food, it was bound to affect the balance of yin, yang, qi and blood. Whether ancient or modern "Medicinal and Edible list" contained many large bias drugs(68.97% and 80.35% respectively), and the main tastes were sweet, samba and bitter,there were also part of toxicity(6.90% and 8.67% respectively).ConclusionBased on the above findings, it is found that in ancient putting medicines into food was under the guidance of doctors for the dialectical implementation to specific patient, which was one of the treatment methods, should belong to the category of modern clinical nutrition. Therefore, it should not be made by ordinary residents and non-professional chefs and other self-imposed. At the same time, the public should not expect to achieve health care, disease prevention and other sorts effects, should treat this cautiously and be under the guidance of doctors embodiment in order to prevent the occurrence of drug-induced diseases. |
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