Meridian Doctrine Study Of Bianxu (Polygonum Aviculare) And Chengliu (Tamarix Chinensis)

The meridian doctrine was one of the most important parties of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) theory. The guide of meridian doctrine could help advancing TCM'veracity and pertinence. The definition of meridian doctrine can be described as TCM'selective effect to the particular part of human body. If one TCM belonged to a (Heart meridian for example) meridian and did not belong to the other, which means the TCM had more remarkable effect to heart than the other part of the body. The origin of meridian doctrine was the experience of using TCM in the ancient, with the development of meridian doctrine, which became to be the guideline of TCM using, and even the juncture between the TCM'theory and clinical TCM using.Meridian doctrine formed in the ancient, but the base was blurry for Hesperian science, which made it very difficult to study though modern experimental method. On the other hand, the understanding of meridian doctrine was quite different at present, vary methods based on vary understanding means contention, and strengthen the hardness of modern research. Because of little modern research and almost no literature reported the study of meridian doctrine, the deviation between TCM using and meridian doctrine became more and more wide, and less and less Chinese people believed in TCM. In order to provide scientific evidence to meridian doctrine, and to find a way in studying meridian doctrine by modern technology, then help TCM using more reasonable and effective. Meridian doctrine study of Chengliu (Tamarix chinensis L.) and Bianxu (Polygonum aviculare L.) were developed in this paper. Chengliu was a marine TCM in China, the meridian doctrine study of marine TCM would help to improve the marine medical resource availability, and to manufacture new marine TCM, even to develop Chinese pharmacy.Bladder meridian was regarded as can drive and excite the movement of five-internal six-organs (Wuzangliufu), which means bladder meridian can control and influence splanchnic functions. Modern research found that nerve system and bladder meridian had very consanguineous relationship. There were some pints (Yuxue) on the bladder meridian line, and nerve also conjunct at these points, the bladder meridian could influence the splanchnic functions though nerve system. Because bladder meridian could control and influence all the inner organs, which explained why external action could change the inner organs'behavior, then the bladder meridian was regarded as the central part of the meridian. The author believed that study on the bladder meridian stand for the meridian for bladder meridian's central effect. Viscera (zangfu) were proved most like the organs in modern anatomy, which indicated that tissue distribution maybe a perfect way for study meridian doctrine. Bianxu was a very ordinary TCM and only belonged to the bladder meridian in Chinese Codex, had the common characters which was most TCM had belonged to bladder meridian. Tissue distribution of effective substance could embody the selectivity of the meridian doctrine, and could be used for study the meridian doctrine.Avicularin was proved had antibacterial, diuretic, antioxidant and liver protective activities in our experiment and literatures, which corresponding Bianxu's efficacy. In our experiment, we found that avicularin was one of the most abundant compounds, and then we concluded that avicularin was the effective substance of Bianxu. Tissue distribution experiment showed that avicularin could be distributed in most viscera. The order of tissue distribution density was kidney>liver>heart>bladder>spleen>lung, this order consistent with the recordation of bladder meridian. The result showed that Bianxu belong to bladder meridian was reasonable, and provided a method for meridian doctrine study.Chengliu was widely distributed on coastal zone and was regarded as marine TCM. Chengliu and Bianxu have the similar chemical constituents and activity, but belong to different meridian, respectively. In order to explain the reason of the diversity, the author also studied meridian of Chengliu though effective substance tissue distribution. The result was: tamarixetin was the effective sunstance of Chengliu, and also widely distributed in lung, heart, liver, kidney, brain, et al. the order of density was lung>heart>liver>kidney>brain. The result was similar as the recordation of Chengliu, and proved that Chengliu belong to heart meridian and lung meridian. The recordation of Chengliu was belong to heart meridian firstly, followed by lung meridian, but the result showed that the lung density higher than heart density, then the author concluded that Chengliu maybe belong to lung meridian firstly. In this experiment, the author also found that the density in kidney was also higher than most viscera, compared with Bianxu'tissue distribution the author drive a conclusion that Chengliu also belong to bladder meridian.In this paper, the author developed a method for meridian doctrine study, the result of Bianxu and Chengliu'effective substances tissue distribution experiment show that the method was useful. This study also indicated that meridian doctrine was reasonable and can be used for instructing TCM using. This paper was the first time for marine TCM meridian study, which could help the development of marine TCM in the future.