Analysis on medication rules of Xin'an medicine for treatment of melancholia administered by physicians in the Ming and Qing dynasties based on R language data mining / 中国基层医药

ABSTRACT

Objective:To investigate the medication rules of Xin'an medicine for the treatment of melancholia and further analyze the medication ideas of Xin'an physicians in the treatment of melancholia.Methods:The documents of Xin'an physicians treating melancholia in the fifth edition of the Chinese Medical Code and the online database of ancient Chinese medicine were retrieved. Excel was used to extract the prescription information to establish the database. R language was used to analyze the data regarding the medication frequency, nature and taste, association rules, and clustering of the traditional Chinese medicine used in the prescription. Results:A total of 127 effective prescriptions were sorted out, and 177 kinds of Chinese medicines were used with a total medication frequency of 1 031 times. The top three Chinese medicines with the highest frequency of use were Poria cocos (57 times), Licorice (46 times), and Paeonia Lactiflora (40 times). The main nature of herbs was plain and warm nature. The warm herbs were the most frequently used (298 times). The first five flavors of the herbs which were the most used were pungent taste (475 times, 28.70%), bitter taste (459 times, 27.73%), and sweet taste (453 times, 27.37%). The commonly used herbs with confidence coefficient > 0.800 were Licorice + Angelica sinensis, Licorice + Angelica sinensis and Paeonia Lactiflora, Licorice + Bupleurum, Licorice + Atractylodes macrocephala, Cyperus root + Ligusticum Chuanxiong, Angelica sinensis + Atractylodes macrocephala and Licorice, Paeonia Lactiflora + Angelica sinensis and Poria cocos, Licorice + Angelica sinensis and Poria cocos, Licorice + Atractylodes macrocephala and Angelica sinensis, Licorice + Bupleurum and Paeonia Lactiflora, Licorice + Atractylodes macrocephala and Ginseng, Licorice + Ginseng and Angelica sinensis, Cyperus root + Medicated leaven, Ginseng + Astragalus mongholicus, Licorice + Astragalus mongholicus.Conclusion:Xin'an medicine for the treatment of melancholia mainly uses pungent, bitter, sweet, and warm herbs. It can adjust the chill and fever, Yin and Yang of the human body, diminishes the urgency, and regulates the flow of Qi.