Earticle

Yang-beop(禳法, Defeating the disease) is the practice to defeat the disease by incantation, amulet and incense. Medical practice can be classified as Shamanism and medical techniques. Yang-beop stands between Shamanism and medical techniques. The purpose of this paper is to classify the types of Yang-beop and verify the position in the traditional society. Yang-beop(禳法) can be divided into senses of hearing, vision, touch, smell and taste which patients feel. Sense of hearing is the incarnation or mantra. The sense of visual is the amulet consists of picture or sentence. The sense of touch is the method to have objects to defeat the evil. The sense of smell is the method to smell incense or smoke. The sense of taste is to take things to defeat the evil. Yang-beop(禳法) was used for the disease with low rate of treatment, non-tangible disease, and for the circumstance such as birth, where person is hard to be involved to rent a power commissioned by God, to pray the luck for patients or defeat the evil. Yang-beop in the traditional society was medical practice included in the medical treatment rather than Shamanism. In order to understand the medical practice in the traditional society, it shall be researched with Taekilbeop (Date selection method).

The chemical compounds in the seeds of Ziziphus jujuba var. spinosa were investigated by bibliographical searching through the papers published since 2000. Terpenoids, flavonoids, alkaloids, phenolics, and fatty acids were reported as chemical compounds from the seed of Z. jujuba var. spinosa. Terpenoid-related compounds were terpenoid-saponins, triterpenoids, sesquriterpenoids, and steroids. Diverse structures of flavonoids were reported, such as flavones, flavanones, chalcone, and isoflavones. Most phenolic compounds were glycoside-contained forms. Cyclopeptide-, aporphine-, indole-, pyrrole-, and benzylisoquinoline-types of alkaloids were reported. Fatty acids were divided into saturated, unsaturated, and their esterified forms.

Ziziphi Spinosae Semen(also named 酸棗仁, Suan Zao Ren) which has calming the spirit and nourishing the spirit efficacy is widely used in Korean traditional medicine. This herbal medicine is defined as the seed of Ziziphus jujuba var. spinosa in Korean, Chinese and Japanese Pharmacopedia. Because of it’s the morphological similarity and taxonomic relation between seeds of Z. mauritana and Leucaena leucocephala, however, these seeds have also been distributed as the Ziziphi Spinosae Semen in herbal market. These have different efficacy and has been used different part of plant. Therefore it is very important to identify accurate species and the botanical origins of Ziziphi Spinosae Semen. As a result of this study, we suggest key identification point of Ziziphi Spinosae Semen based on the morphological features.

A persimmon is mainly raised in Korea, Japan, and China compared with other fruits; the sweet persimmon is a native species and the astringent persimmon is a wild species. Astringent persimmons contain tannic acid which is the water solubility compound tastes astringent. Also, it has functions such as anti-aging and anticancer effect. From old times, the stalk of astringent persimmon has been called Kaki Calyx and used in traditional Korean medicine (TKM). In TKM, the stalk of astringent persimmon is known as useful medicinal herb which is effective on bed-wetting, vomit, and hiccupping. The materials collected from three different geographic area (Gojongsi from Sancheong, Danseongsi from Sancheong, and Bansi from Miryang) with different kinds of cultivar. The samples were provided from Frorest Environment Research Institute in Gyeongsangnam-do. These materials were separated from astringent persimmon to its stalks and peels. Then 70% ethanol extraction from each samples to analyze tannic acid were performed. As a result, tannic acid were included in all of samples and the persimmons of Bansi from Miryang had high percentage of the content compared with other samples. This study would provide useful information about tannic acid content to contribute chances for increasing the income of farmers through utilizing technology development of astringent persimmon. To future study, we will be required to extend any other area and species. We have plan to analyze tannic acid content depending on sampling times and various symptoms.

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 ‘platycodon root’ 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 platycodon root 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.