<b>Attitudes of Pharmacy Students at Kyushu University of Health and Welfare Toward Kampo Medicine from a Questionnaire Survey Conducted in 2012</b> / 日本東洋医学雑誌

Kampo, the traditional Japanese Medicine, is an indispensable treatment methodology practiced by more than 70% of Japanese doctors. However, proper Kampo Medicine education for Japanese pharmacist still needs to be established. To better grasp how pharmacy students understand Kampo Medicine, we conducted a questionnaire survey with 1 st to 6 th year students at Kyushu University of Health and Welfare. The students answered that they were interested in Kampo Medicine (80.8%) and that Kampo education at college was a necessity (91.1%). Many (60.2%) of them were aware of their lack of Kampo medical knowledge, and 76.1% were willing to study it in future. In the free-written responses, some of the 1 st to 4 th year students wanted practical lessons in the handling of actual crude drugs. On the other hand, 5 th to 6 th year students wanted to know more about clinical evidence. A system of college education that meets these demands would surely boost post-graduate education in Kampo Medicine.

<b>Herbological Study on the Quality and Toxicity of Aconite Root </b> / 日本東洋医学雑誌

The crude drug Aconite Root (<i>bushi </i>in Japanese) contains toxic compounds called bushi diester alkaloids(BDA), and the raw material with high BDA content has been considered suitable for processing into prepared <i>bushi</i>. Moreover, processing methods and an upper BDA content limit are prescribed in the 16th edition of Japanese Pharmacopoeia. In this study, we closely examined descriptions of high quality <i>bushi </i>in ancient herbal literature, and elucidated the relationship between <i>bushi </i>forms and BDA contents. The results showed that large-sized <i>bushi </i>with enlarged rootlets called “horns” (<i>tsuno </i>in Japanese) were considered higher quality, and the horns and the root tops (<i>hozo </i>in Japanese) were cut off when used as <i>bushi</i>. Meanwhile, chemical studies have shown that larger <i>bushi </i>contains less BDA, and the root tops and the horns contain more BDA than the root body. These results suggest that selecting larger roots and cutting off the more potent parts were processes for reducing BDA. Therefore we conclude that consistently less toxic <i>bushi </i>was considered a higher quality product in ancient times.