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It was studied to compare between efficacies of Atractylodes Rhizome recorded in Traditional Korean Medicine literatures and pharmacological efficacies identified in recent studies. Traditional uses of Atractylodes Rhizome were collected from thirteen herbal books and five medical books, and pharmacological efficacy studies were collected from three digital databases. After the WHO-ATC classification criteria was used to sort types of the efficacies, comparison between traditional uses and pharmacologically identified efficacy was performed. Two hundred thirty-five efficacies collected from traditional literatures were classified into twenty-six efficacy types. Sixty-five pharmacological efficacy studies collected from three databases reported forty efficacy types. Traditional literatures and experimental studies were most commonly reported gastrointestinal system-related efficacies. It was found that most pharmacological efficacy studies examined main efficacies which had already recorded in traditional literatures. There were studies which examined the efficacy for gastrointestinal disorders, musculoskeletal anti-inflammation, diuretic effect, the inhibitory effect of uterine contraction and the whitening effect (nine, six, three, one, and one, respectively). On the other hand, opposite efficacy and new potential efficacies were also observed. There were two studies reported the effect for constipation, but most traditional literatures recorded antidiarrheal effect. In addition, there were studies which found hypoglycemic antidiabetic, antineoplastic, and antioxidative effect (five, eight, and three, respectively). Most experimental studies were inspired by traditional uses recorded traditional medical literatures. Some studies found efficacies contrary to traditional uses or new potential efficacies.

The standards of medicinal herbs are provided differently in each nations. So the dissimilarity of the standards should be verified for the standardization of medicinal herbs. The requirements of ‘liquorice’ were compared among the Korean Pharmacopoeia (KP), the Japanese Pharmacopoeia (JP), Pharmacopoeia of the People’s Republic of China (ChP), Taiwan Herbal Pharmacopeia (THP), Hong Kong Chinese Materia Medica Standards (HCS), and the Pharmacopoeia of Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DP). There were different requirements of liquorice among the pharmacopoeias, such as the origin, morphological description, identification, purity, ash content, extract content, loss on drying, and the assay. The differences of standards among northeast-asian countries should be investigated thoroughly in terms of efficacy and safety. This study would be a helpful reference for the revision of the regulation on herbal medicine.

Distribution maps are very important in biodiversity. The herbarium in Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine is serving the informations of plant specimen collecting locations by map images based on hypertext markup language. In this article, a simple method to display the geographic coordinate on web page is introduced. These map images are usable for not only web pages but also presswork, and quite efficient because it doesn't need any plugins or application programming interfaces.

The roots of Angelica acutiloba Kitag. were widely used in herbal medicines and they also used in multi-purpose plants as vegetables and functional foods. Recently, a lot of researches have been done about medicinal plants in Korean herbal medicine, but the studies about propagation or biomass uptakes of A. acutiloba have not been done, yet. This experiment investigated the optimal in vitro culture conditions (stem growth, root growth, and root number) for 4 weeks in 10 different kinds of culture media after seed selection. Then, they were translated to soils for performing of mature plants. The case of stem growth in vitro cultured was positive on WPM (Woody plant Medium) however, the root growth and root number were positive on DJ (De Greef and Jacobs) culture medium. Simply, this study had been identified optimal medium conditions of in vitro cultures and accumulized in soil environments using healthy seeds of A. acutiloba. Thus, this study could provide information about rapid and simple methods of A. acutiloba for multiple propagation.

To investigate how environmental conditions influence the growth of the medicinally important Buxus koreana (Nakai ex Rehder) T.H. Chung, P.S. Toh, D.B. Lee & F.J. Lee, we established 10 × 10 m field plots at four sites within Korea and surveyed floristic composition and species abundance. Although species richness was the highest at Maepo-eup, but species composition was significantly different. This degree of richness was positively correlated with calcium content in the soil. Because we found no other significant correlations between the growth of B. koreana and environmental factors, we conclude that performance by this species is not necessarily dependent upon any specific external influences. Therefore, we believe that this plant is suitable for mass production via commercial cultivation.

The authentication of Sokdan, one of the Korean traditional medicines, was performed with comparative study of morphological feature between Dipsaci Radix, roots of Dipsacus asper Wall. ex C.B. Clarke, and Phlomidis Radix, those of Phlomis umbrosa Turcz. In addition to a sensory observation, a stereoscope was used for more improve the accuracies. The surface of Dipsaci Rdix (DR) had more deeper furrows than it of Phlomidis Radix (PR). And more, the surface patterns of PR were more regular and fine than those of DR. In a section, DR did not have a clear distinction between nearby xylem, but PR did. In a distal section of DR, the color of cortex was dark-brown or dark- green and xylem was lemon yellow. On the other hand, PR was generally lemon yellow. It was discriminable for two herbs by observing pattern of furrows and colors of section.

This study aimed to provide current information on combined use of chinese patent medicines (CPM) and antihypertensive agents. Clinical articles were searched with China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI). Primary keywords were 81 antihypertensive agents permitted in Korea. Secondary keywords were 59 chinese patent medicines which have effect on lowering blood pressure. Search queries made of combined keywords were processed. Searched articles were analyzed as study designs, diagnostic standards, blood pressure measurements, adverse events and interactions. Sixty-one articles of randomized trials (n=43), non-randomized trials (n=3) and case studies (n=15) were selected. Total 42 pairs among 15 antihypertensive agents and 17 chinese patent medicines were analyzed. Seven global or domestic guidelines were adopted to diagnose hypertension and 9 tools were used to assess effectiveness. Severe adverse events were reported from hydrochlorothiazide with zhenju jiangya-pian (珍菊降压片) or jiangya bifeng-pian (降压避風片), captopril with songling xuemaikang-jiaonang (松齡血脈康膠囊) and nifedipine with fubang danshen-diwan (复方丹参滴丸). Combined use of antihypertensive drugs and chinese patent medicines can cause various clinical conditions. Healthcare professionals also patients and caregivers should be informed of herb-drug interaction risk and safety.

Purpose : The original plant species of Paeoniae Radix is differentially described in the national pharmacopoeia of Korea, China and Japan. To develop the reliable method for the authentication of four Paeonia species, P. lactiflora, P. japonica, Paeonia veitchii and P. suffruticosa, we analyzed psbA-trnH DNA barcode region and identified species-specific marker nucleotides. Materials and Methods : Plant materials were collected from different geographic regions in Korea and China, and psbA-trnH DNA barcode region were amplified using psbA3-f and trnHf-05 primer set. The DNA sequences were analyzed and aligned using the Bio-Edit program. The multiple alignment of each samples were also analyzed with the Bio-Edit program in order to calculate the genetic distance among the samples using unweight pair group method with arithmetic averages (UPGMA) anlysis. Results : PCR amplification rate of 12 samples used in this study were 100% for psbA- trnH region. In comparison of psbA-trnH sequences among four Paeonia species, we identified 1, 2, 2, and 16 species specific nucleotides enough to distinguish each species, respectively. These species-specific sequences could provide useful genetic marker nucleotides to discriminate the precise species among the analyzed four Paeonia species. Conclusion : We analyzed psbA-trnH region to confirm the availability of molecular authentication for Paeoninae Radix on species levels using four Paeonia species. As a result, we amplified PCR products of psbA-trnH region from all of the 12 samples and obtained total 21 marker nucleotides enough to distinguish each four Paeonia species. These marker nucleotides are useful genetic tool for the standardization of Paeonae Radix.

Chemical interaction of compositional herbs in Pywongwi-san (PWS) was evaluated by chemical fingerprinting using high-performance liquid chromatography. The area of selected 74 peaks were calculated under combination of herb-herb, dissembled PWS formula which was deficient of one herb, and whole PWS formula. The results showd that chemical interaction affected the extraction efficiency of chemical compounds among herbal medicines of PWS.

Decoction is commonly used to extract herbal medicine in Korean Medicine. Not only composition of prescription but also decoction method affect the efficacy of decoction. Root of Rheum palmatum is typically used for purgative medicine but it could be used for different efficacy in different decoction method. This review is to survey decoction method in previous studies. As a result most decoction methods in previous studies have been inadequately performed.

This study was performed to review the research trends of aging in the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) by Chinese papers. The information for this study was collected by reviewing Chinese papers focusing on aging in TCM. We identified literatures on TCM that were published between 1994 and 2014 for the aging in the resent at the website CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure) and analyzed these papers according to year, research method, and so on. We selected 75 articles with following results: 1) The study of aging in TCM from 1994 and continued steadily. 2) Classified by research method from 1994: 29 experimental studies, 6 clinical studies, 39 documentary studies and 1 experimental studies & clinical study. 3) Classified by experimental studies from 1994: All studies used oriental herbal prescription improved aging symptoms in vivo. 4) Classified by experimental studies from 1994: 6 studies used TCM prescription, 1 study moxibustion and almost research has an effect on aging. In conclusion, Chinese research on aging of traditional medicine encompasses various fields and perspectives. Thus, further research about aging in Korean medicine will be required to the various approach.