Herbal Textual Research on Scorpio in Famous Classical Formulas and Its Resource Status / 中国实验方剂学杂志

ABSTRACT

By reviewing the materia medica， medical books and scripture history， combining modern and contemporary literature and field investigation， this paper systematically reviewed the name， origin， scientific name， producing area， quality， harvesting and processing of Scorpio in famous classical formulas to clarify the relationship between ancient and modern times and provide a reference basis for the development of related famous classical formulas. After the textual research， it can be seen that there are many names of Scorpio， and most of the materia medica use Xie or Quanxie as the official name. The origin of Scorpio used in the past dynasties is Buthus martensii， which is the same in ancient and modern times. B. martensii is mainly distributed in the central and eastern parts of China， as well as Mongolia， Korea and other places， located in East Asia. Therefore， pharmaceutical workers in China mostly continue to use the early Chinese name， that is， Dongya Qianxie， while modern Scorpiones taxonomists set its Chinese name as Mashi Zhengqianxie. In order to maintain the stability and continuity of the origin of Scorpio， the previous editions of Chinese Pharmacopoeia have always used the name of B. martensii. The geo-authentic producing area of Scorpio， which has been respected in the past dynasties， was Qingzhou， Shandong. Until the Republic of China， due to the different processing methods in the production area， the geo-authentic producing area expanded to Yu county， Henan， with Yu county as the distribution center， the best quality of Scorpio is produced by boiling in clear water and drying after boiling. The origin processing of Scorpio is mainly divided into clean water and salt water boiling and then drying， where the method of boiling with salt water was first described in Bencao Yuanshi， the purpose is antiseptic and suitable for storage， and the salt should be washed away when used clinically. There are few processing methods of Scorpio， in ancient times， it was used for roasting or frying after removing the feet， in modern times， it is mostly to remove impurities， wash and dry. Scorpio is not only used for medicinal purposes， but also has the habit of eating in many areas， so the consumption of resources is relatively large， and it is still mainly harvested from the wild， resulting in the decrease of wild resources year by year. Based on the research conclusion， it is recommended that B. martensii， which is produced in Qingzhou， Luyi or Yuzhou， should be used in the the development of famous classical formulas containing Scorpio， and the origin processing is preferable to be dried after boiling with water， and the processing specification should be selected as raw products. And B. martensii in geo-authentic producing areas was used as the seed source to establish a standardized breeding base to ensure the sustainable development of the resources of Scorpio.