抄録
"Yamato-toki" is a well-known brand of ANGELICAE RADIX, which is prepared only from Angelica acutiloba roots cultivated in Nara and Wakayama Prefectures in Japan and is prepared with traditional processing steps. In order to compensate for the production of Yamato-toki, an exploration of a site which is suitable for the cultivation of A. acutiloba was performed extensively. In the survey, the northern Sichuan province of China was discovered as a candidate and the pilot production of A. acutiloba using Japanese seeds and traditional processing steps was started in 2003. From 2007, Yamato-toki has been produced on a productive scale.
The A. acutiloba roots cultivated in the northern Sichuan province were conformed to the Japanese Pharmacopoeia XV standards tests. Three dimensional-HPLC profiles and the amount of some active constituents including (Z)-ligustilide, (Z)-butylidenephthalide and adenosine contained in Yamato-toki produced in China were similar to those of Yamato-toki produced in Japan. The production of A. acutiloba roots at northern Sichuan province in China will be a promising resource to meet the shortage of Yamato-toki supply in Japan.
