Herbal Textual Research on Stephaniae Tetrandrae Radix in Famous Classical Formulas / 中国实验方剂学杂志

ABSTRACT

By reviewing ancient materia medica， medical and prescription books， combined with modern literature， the textual research of Stephaniae Tetrandrae Radix has been conducted to verify the name， origin， producing area， harvesting and processing methods. Through textual research， the results show that the mainstream name of this herb recorded in the past dynasties is Fangji， which is also called Hanzhong Fangji because it is produced in Hanzhong city， and after the Tang dynasty， it was gradually divided into Hanfangji and Mufangji， and there is the saying that Han Zhushuiqi， Mu Zhufengqi. The names of Fenfangji and Guangfangji were first seen in the republic of China. In addition， Fenfangji was once distributed in Hankou， so it was also known as "Hanfangji"， which is easily confused with the traditional Hanzhong Fangji for short. Based on the original research， it is concluded that Aristolochia heterophylla（Hanzhong Fangji）is the mainstream of Stephaniae Tetrandrae Radix used in the Qing dynasty and before， and the application history of Cocculus orbiculatus can be traced back to before the Tang dynasty. After the Ming dynasty， Stephania tetrandra gradually became another main origin， and in the Republic of China， A. fangchi was used as a medicine for Stephaniae Tetrandrae Radix， but in modern times it was banned because it contained aristolochic acid as a toxic ingredient， and S. tetrandra has become the mainstream legal origin. The traditional production area of Hanzhong Fangji is Hanzhong， Shaanxi province， while today the mainstream of S. tetrandra is manly produced in Jiangxi and other places. Based on the quality evaluation research， the quality of Hanzhong Fangji is better with the radial texture of section used as radial solution， yellow solid and fragrant. Fenfangji with solid quality， white inside， powdered enough， less fiber and radiating texture is better. From the harvesting and processing research， the root of Fangji is mostly harvested in spring and autumn， and the outer bark should be removed in some literature. Before the Ming dynasty， this herb was dried in the shade， and after the Ming dynasty， it was dried in the sun. The modern production processing of Fangji is to harvest it in autumn， wash it， remove the rough bark， dry it to half dry， cut it into sections， and then cut it longitudinally if it is large， and dry it. Based on the results， combined with current studies on the toxicity of aristolochic acid and influencing factors such as commercial circulation， it is suggested that S. tetrandra should be used as the origin of Fangji， the processed products are selected according to the prescription requirements， and those without specified requirements can be processed by referring to the raw products in the 2020 edition of Chinese Pharmacopoeia.