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

ABSTRACT

Benzoinum has a long history of medicinal use. In order to standardize its clinical use， the author made systematic textual research on the name， origin， evolution of scientific name， producing area， property， quality evaluation， harvesting and processing of Benzoinum by reviewing the ancient materia medica， medical books and modern literature. According to the research， the mainstream variety of Benzoinum recorded in ancient materia medica should be the dry resin of Styrax tonkinensis of Styracaceae. In addition to S. benzoin， which was also used in many applications. In modern times， S. benzoin was the mainstream， but in practice， it was mostly the resin of various plants of the genus Styrax， and then S. tonkinensis and S. benzoides were recorded as the main sources of Benzoinum. Nowadays， it mainly comes from S. tonkinensis. In ancient times， the producing areas of Benzoinum were Persia， Xirong， Annan and other places， whereas now are distributed in Indonesia， Sumatra， Thailand， Vietnam， and Fujian， Guizhou， Yunnan， Guangxi， Guangdong and other places in China， but most of the medicinal materials in China are imported. Traditionally， the medicinal materials of Benzoinum with properties of oily， waxy luster， brittle and fragile， strong aroma， sand feeling when chewing and no impurities are considered better. In antiquity， the harvesting time of Benzoinum was concentrated in July and August， while in modern times， it is harvested in summer and autumn， and collected in various ways， usually the trees are selected to be harvested if they are more than 10 years old， and the best quality being the first， milky resin collected when the time of cutting the trees is from April to June. In the past dynasties， the powdered resin was mainly ground and used in formulas， in addition， there were also records of wine steaming into paste and processing with honey， etc. The 1953 edition of Chinese Pharmacopoeia added records such as sevum benzoinatum and adeps benzoinatus， and now it is mostly used as powder into pills or powers， or used after processing with wine. Based on the results of textual research， it is suggested that although the dry resin of S. benzoin is not a medicinal variety of Benzoinum included in the 2020 edition of Chinese Pharmacopoeia， it has a long history of application and has some clinical value， so its medicinal feasibility can be explored in depth. In the development of famous classical formulas containing Benzoinum， the dry resin of S. tonkinensis or S. benzoin can be used， which should be used in medicine as powder after dried or processed according to the requirements of prescriptions.