Researches On The Seven Relationships Of Chinese Medicnals

Formulas are the main clinical application forms of traditional Chinese medicine. Ancient physicians have accumulated abundant clinical experiences and created the theory of medicinal combination, which is an important part of Chinese medicinal theory and is of significant value in guiding the clinical application of Chinese medicinals. Through thorough investigation on ancient and modem documentations, this paper systematically sorted out the core part of the theory of medicinal combination, namely the seven relationships of medicinals, redefined the accurate meanings of each individual relationship, and clarified the long-lasting puzzle about the concept of seven relations.This paper put forward and elucidated the concept of relativity of seven relations for the first time. Taking the commonly used medicinal pair-aconite (fu zi) and dried ginger (gan jiang)-as an example, experiments were conducted to explore the relativity of seven relations in the aspects of the toxicity, phannacological actions and variations of bio-active components before and after they were combined. The resultsshowed:(1) Aconite or dried ginger obviously inhibits the decreasing of body temperature (Yang deficiency pattern) in thyroidectomized rats. The combination of aconite and dried ginger showed stronger action against the decreasing of body temperature, which was significantly different from that of single aconite or dried ginger (P<0.01). The combination of aconite and dried ginger obviously raised the pain threshold in mice, which was significantly different from that of single aconite or dried ginger (P,0.05), indicating that the combination had stronger analgesic action than that of single aconite or dried ginger. These test results indicated that in the aspects of treating Yang deficiency pattern and alleviating pain, aconite and dried ginger were in the relationship of mutual need (xiang xu). They accentuated their therapeutic actions when applied together. When aconite and dried ginger were decocted together, the contents of total alkaloids and aconitine were largely increased, while the content of hypaaconitine was slightly decreased in the finished decoction. This might be related to the reinforcement of analgesic action. It might also indicate that dried ginger helped the release of aconitine into the decoction. (2) Acutetoxicity tests in mice showed that aconite was of high toxicity. When it was combined with dried ginger, the LD50 of the combination was 5 times that of aconite, indicating that the toxicity of aconite was significantly reduced after combined with dried ginger. This was possibly because dried ginger reduced the toxicity of aconite. These test results indicated that aconite and dried ginger were in the relationship of mutual fear (xiang wei) and mutual killing (xiang sha), i.e. aconite is counteracted by dried ginger, and dried ginger reduced the toxicity of aconite. (3) Aconite worsened, but dried ginger relieved the fever in endotoxin attacked rabbits. The combination of aconite and dried ginger showed a tendency to worsen the fever. This indicated that when aconite and dried ginger were applied together to feverish pattern, the former weakened the antipyretic action of the latter. Therefore they were in the relationship of mutual antagonism (xiang wu). When dried ginger was combined with aconite, the harmful effect of fever was strengthened Therefore they were in the relationship of mutual incompatibility (xiang fan) as well.The combination of aconite and dried ginger perfectly reflected the relativity of seven relations.