• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.410-418
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• 1998

From the ancient times, herbs, animals and minerals were used as natural medicine to cure human disease in diverse ways. One of the representative forms in oral intake is decoction. But medicinal decoction degenerates as time passes just as all foods do by the environmental factors, such as micro-organism, enzyme, light and the air. Nowadays, as medicinal decoctions are kept in bottles and retort pouch for longtime, some standard data for preservation is necessary. In order to measure the standard statistics for safe preservation, Youngsunjetongeum used to treat rheumatism, and gout 'were used. According to this experiment which measured pH, specific gravity, analgesic effect and anti-inflammatory effect, the results were as follows: 1. No remarkable change was found in pH and in the specific gravity of decoction. 2. As for the analgesic effect induced by acetic acid in mice, no remarkable decrease in its medicinal efficacy was found, until the 9th day, but it showed in its medicinal efficacy from the 11th day. 3. As for the resultant anti-inflammatory effect caused by vascular permeability, induced by carrageenin and acetic acid, no remarkable decrease in its medicinal efficacy was found until the 9th day, but showed decrease in its medicinal efficacy from 11th day. In conclusion, keeping the natural medicinal decoction more than 9 days should be avoided.

• Journal of Haehwa Medicine
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.711-726
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• 1999

Aging in the life form occurs due to a gradual progression of the body growth and degeneration. Morphological and functional changes in the body decreases the adaptation and prevention capacity leading into the decline of a life force. Various studies have been released to examine the anti-aging effects of herbal prescriptions. This experiment has chosen Boganhwan which is used for the deficiency of the liver function and studied the anti-aging factors by examining the biotransformation enzymes. The following results were obtained in this study: 1. Hepatic lipid peroxide activity was significantly suppressed in the experimental group treated with Boganhwan for 2 weeks at the dosage of 350mg/kg, while other dosage groups did not present much changes. 2. Insignificant changes were shown for the cytochrome P-450 level, aminopyrine demethylase, and aniline hydroxylase (AH) activities. Cytochrome P-450 do not appears to be a part of the detoxification scheme. 3. Boganhwan decoction treated group showed most significant increase of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase, superoxide, and glutathione activities at the concentration of 350mg/kg and 500mg/kg. 4. Glutathione S-transferase and glutathione made most significant increase at the decoction concentration of 350mg/kg and 500mg/kg compared to the control group. 5. Hepatic glutathione concentration, protein bound-SH, and nonprotein bound-SH made most significant increase at the decoction concentration of 350mg/kg and 500mg/kg compared to the control group. From the above results, Boganhwan decoction played an important role in eliminating foreign substances in the body excluding cytochrome P-450 enzyme system. Thus, Boganhwan decoction can provide substantial aid in preventing and treating senile related illnesses.