Kampo medicines, boiling water extracts of several kinds of herbal medicines, has been widely used for the clinical treatments in Japan. This medicine was created in China and brought to Japan via Korean peninsula at 5th century and has followed an independent course of development in Japan. But a modern scientific knowledge on Kampo medicines are still lacking, so this precious properties are slighted by modern medical treatment.
Last twenty five years, we have investigated the Kampo medicine chemically and pharmacologically to change this situation. In this paper, few topics will be discussed as shown bellow.
1) Difference between Kampo medicines and modern western medicines
2) Structural transformation of ingredients of crude drug
3) What is Kampo medicines based on components
4) Biological evaluation of some Kampo medicines
a. Effects of Sho-saiko-to toward the expression of P450mRNA
b. Effects of some Kampo formula toward the AD models
c. Effects of some Kampo formula toward the rheumatic models

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Kampo treatment for respiratory diseases on the traditional standard including some care reports lectured. To find adequate Kampo prescription for each patient, it need to discriminate what is the cause of the symptoms, throat, nose, chest or low respiratory function. Some patients whose obstructive feeling at throat was improved by the adiministration of Hange-koboku-to, was introduced. Anxiety at throat was an important sign for its indication in these patients. This prescription was also applicated to sleep-disordered breathing. On treatment for chronic rhinitis that caused respiratory symptoms the pulse diagnosis was an important technique for the diagnosis of stasis of body fluids. Kampo treatment for common cold, chronic bronchitis, bronchial asthma and interstitial pneumonia were told as chest diseases. Kampo prescriptions for chronic bronchitis were classified by the characteristics of cough (dry or wet) and Kyo-Jitsu (asthenia or robust). Pediatric asthma patients who respond to the prescriptions with tonic effect including Sho-kenchu-to, was considered to increase recently. A case with interstital pneumonia improved with Bukuryo-kyonin-kanzo-to, was introduced and adequate Kampo prescription for this disease was discussed with some previous reports. Hachimi jio-gan increased peak flow rate of asthmatic patients with low respiratory function and the difference of indication to Bakumi-jio-gan-ryo was discussed.

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We studied patients following transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) in order to assess the efficacy of Ryutan-shakan-to in the treatment of post-TURPpain and discomfort (PTPD). The study utilized the Japanese-language edition (draft) of the National Institutes of Health Chronic Prostatitis Symptom Index (NIH-CPSI). Our subjects were 15 patients of age 57 to 77 (mean age 69.8 years) who had undergone TURP 0.8 to 10 years (mean 3.4 years) previously. The patients filled out the Japanese version (draft) of NIH-CPSI before starting treatment with Ryutan-shakan-to (7.5g/day) and every 2 weeks after the start of treatment. The duration of treatment with Ryutan-shakan-to was 2 to 16 weeks (mean 6.4 weeks). Results showed that Ryutan-shakan-to was effective in treating PTPD in 11 cases (73%) and ineffective in 4 cases (27%). Scores (mean±standard deviation) for pain severity, pain frequency, and quality of life (QOL) were significantly better at the end of treatment than at baseline, with values decreasing from 5.8±1.5 to 2.6±1.9 for severity of pain (p=0.0014), from 3.4±0.9 to 2.0±1.5 for frequency of pain (p=0.0096), and from 4.5±0.7 to 2.6±1.4 for QOL (p=0.0033), respectively. These results indicate that Ryutan-shakan-to offers a useful treatment option for patients with PTPD.

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Although the combined administration of glycyrrhizin (SNMC) and ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) is usually used for intractable patients with active HCV-associated chronic hepatitis (HCV-CH) or cirrhosis (LC), there are many cases that do not respond to this combination therapy. In this study, we examined the effects of adding Juzen-taiho-to (TJ-48) to lower the serum alanine aminotransferase (s-ALT=s-GPT) levels in such cases. Methods: The average s-ALT levels for 6 months were compared before and after 7.5g of Juzen-taiho-to was added to the combined therapy of SNMC and UDCA for 9 HCV-CH and 12 HCV-LC patients. In some cases, the effectiveness of the therapy over 12 months was also evaluated. Results: In the HCV-CH cases s-ALT levels were significantly decreased in 3 of 9 (33%) cases in 6 months (about 30 INU in average). In the HCV-LC cases, s-ALT levels were significantly decreased in 5 of 12 (42%) cases in 6 months (more than 40 INU in average). There were some patients whose s-ALT levels decreased significantly after 6 months. As to the improvement of clinical symptoms, general fatigability improved in 12 out of 20 cases (60%) and anorexia improved in 10 out of 19 cases (53%). Conclusions: Juzen-taiho-to (TJ-48, 7.5g daily) added to the combined therapy of SNMC and UDCA may be an effective therapy for intractable cases of active HCV-CH or LC.

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As many natural medicines absorb water at boiling, yields of the decoctions are affected by absorbed water. Therefore, we examined the quantity of imbibition of each crude drug at boiling. We used 75 kinds of crude drugs. After boiling 600ml of water, each natural medicine was boiled for 70 minutes. The medicine was left for 60 minutes, and then boiled again for 20 minutes. The quantity of imbibition of each natural medicine was measured at 10, 20, 30, 40, 60, 130, and 150 minutes. The maximum data among the quantity of imbibition at each point was labeled “maximum quantity of imbibition.” With regard to the maximum quantity of imbibition in natural medicines of plant origin, the range was from a maximum of 69.10g in Chrisanthemi Flos to a minimum of 3.26g in Persicae Semen. The average maximum quantity of imbibition was 22.51±13.00g, and there were large differences among each of the natural medicines. The quantity of imbibition at 10 minutes or 20 minutes was above 80% of each maximum quantity of imbibition on many crude drugs, but that gradually increased over the time course for some crude drugs.

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