Pharmaceutical apsects of dan shen (salvia)

[Guest guest]

I guess younger tcm students/practitioners are more interested to

learn the pharmaceutical aspects of dan shen (salvia) rather than

knowing its tcm medicinal actions of ¡¥stasis-dispersing, blood-

invigorating, and clearing the heart to remove vexation¡¦ that seems

abstract.

 

1. Its medicinal actions manifested in the cardio blood vessels

system: a) It can strengthen the heart and expand blood vessels. It

can expand the coronary and therefore can treat myocardial

infarction. The blood flow increases in all the blood vessels in the

heart and limbs except the brain. Therefore, it can clear vexation as

the hyperactive blood pressure is lowered. b) It can stop the

formation of thrombus. It can promote the dissolution of fibrin;

therefore it can deform thrombus; c) It can improve micro-

circulation. By doing so, it can repair the damaged tissues.

 

2. It can be spirit-calming as it can decrease the brain wave

activity in laboratory animals.

 

3. It can diminish the liver swelling (due to improving micro-

circulation of the liver).

 

Despite its modern approach, it is of little use for tcm

practitioners to make a decent prescription. My point is: clincial

efficacy counts a lot of a decent mentor when it comes to learning

tcm.

 

SUNG, Yuk-mingI guess younger tcm students/practitioners are more

interested to learn the pharmaceutical aspects of dan shen (salvia)

rather than knowing its tcm medicinal actions of ¡¥stasis-dispersing,

blood-invigorating, and clearing the heart to remove vexation¡¦ that

seems abstract.

 

1. Its medicinal actions manifested in the cardio blood vessels

system: a) It can strengthen the heart and expand blood vessels. It

can expand the coronary and therefore can treat myocardial

infarction. The blood flow increases in all the blood vessels in the

heart and limbs except the brain. Therefore, it can clear vexation as

the hyperactive blood pressure is lowered. b) It can stop the

formation of thrombus. It can promote the dissolution of fibrin;

therefore it can deform thrombus; c) It can improve micro-

circulation. By doing so, it can repair the damaged tissues.

 

2. It can be spirit-calming as it can decrease the brain wave

activity in laboratory animals.

 

3. It can diminish the liver swelling (due to improving micro-

circulation of the liver).

 

Despite its modern approach, it is of little use for tcm

practitioners to make a decent prescription. My point is: clincial

efficacy counts a lot of a decent mentor when it comes to learning

tcm.

 

SUNG, Yuk-ming

[Guest guest]

I agree. And furthermore there is now much debate now about the actual

effects they have attributed to dan shen. The early experiments were

seemingly flawed. As with most Western medicine, give it a few years and it

will probably change.

 

 

 

-Jason

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Behalf Of leach_rachel

Wednesday, November 19, 2008 7:41 AM

 

Re: Pharmaceutical apsects of dan shen (salvia)

 

 

 

" SUNG, Yuk-mingI guess younger tcm students/practition ers are more

interested to learn the pharmaceutical aspects of dan shen (salvia)

rather than knowing its tcm medicinal actions of ¡¥stasis-dispersing,

blood-invigorating, and clearing the heart to remove vexation¡¦ that

seems abstract. "

 

I completely disagree. I fully appreciate TCM practitioners who can

explain TCM in TCM terms and not try to put a western twist to it due

to an inability to understand TCM terminology. Sung Yuk-ming's

explination was clear, concise and insightful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Jason,

 

Thanks for your insightful comments, as always. As Chairman Mao put it,

CM is a great treasure and we should continuously dig more out of it.

 

Contemporary graduate students of tcm universities endlessly explore

the modern pharmceutical aspects of herbal medicine. The more we

understand individual medicinal, the more we are amazed at the wisdom

of the ancient. Majority of the newly found pharmaceutical knowledge

only reinforce and confirm what we already know.

 

SUNG, Yuk-ming

[Guest guest]

On Fri, Nov 21, 2008 at 7:58 AM, sxm2649 <sxm2649 wrote:

 

> Majority of the newly found pharmaceutical knowledge

> only reinforce and confirm what we already know.

>

 

 

 

 

However, there are ideological forces out there that suggest since we now

know what herbs are " really " doing, we can stop studying traditional

functions, indications, etc.

 

That's the downside of biomedical confirmations.

 

--

, DAOM

Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.