Abstract
We implemented the Drug-Pad Moxibustion Method in order to improve the conventional moxibustion therapy. This method is aimed to eliminate burning wounds and smoke, which are the defects of conventional moxibustion therapy. And we performed to verify the efficiency by comparing the Drug-Pad Moxibustion Method with the conventional Indirect Moxibustion Therapy. We measured the body heat and the lasting time of blood circulation improvement using thermography. The moxibustion therapy has two kinds of effects: The formers are pharmacological effects of the Moxa's vasodilators and antioxidants. The latters are thermal effects which cause improvement of the blood circulation. To remove the demerits without omission of above therapeutic effects, we extracted the vasodilators and antioxidant compounds from the Moxa-$CH_2Cl_2$ fraction Moxa-EtOAc and composed the moxibustion kit with $(Ba_{0.8}\;Sr_{0.2})_{0.996}\;Y_{0.004}\;TiO_2+0.5_{WT}\;SiO_2%$ Positive Temperature Coefficients Thermistor. The experimental demonstrations have been made by the stimulating the spot which is CV4(Kwan-Won), CV8(Shin-Guel), CV12(Jung-Wan) acupuncture points of the conception vessel meridian(CV). And stimulating time was one hour. We divided the subjects into 5 groups such as no stimulation group, conventional Indirect Moxibustion group, only Drug-Pad stimulation group, only heat stimulation group, and Drug-Pad Moxibustion group. In the different cases, we have measured the body heat in pre-stimulation, just after stimulation, 2 hours after, and 4 hours after. The body heats of the group who were stimulated by the Drug-Pad Moxibustion Method were increased by over the $2^{\circ}C$. And the body heats of the group who were stimulated by the Indirect Moxibustion Method were increased by average the $1^{\circ}C$. We have evaluated that the Drug-Pad Moxibustion Method is improvement on the conventional Indirect Moxibustion Method by the heat-increasing rate is 200% and the lasting time is 150% with the body heat of the abdominal region. In the conclusions, We have implemented the Drug-Pad Moxibustion Method and evaluated the efficiency of the Drug-Pad Moxibustion Method comparing with the conventional Indirect Moxibustion Method.