[A revaluation of the late Dr. Noriyuki Sugihara in Korea].

We investigate the achievements in pharmacology and administration in the field of traditional Korean and Kampo medicines by Dr. N. Sugihara. Dr. Sugihara became a professor of the 2nd dept. of pharmacology, School of Medicine, Keijo University of Seoul in 1926. Since then, until 1946, he was involved in almost all the projects related to traditional medicine in Korea and Manchuria. Also he founded several research centers in Korea, such as the Natural Product Research Institute of Keijo University (the present Natural Product Research Institute of Seoul National University). We confirm Dr. Sugihara's contribution to traditional medicine, based on an investigations of his academic records from his disciples in Korea and Japan, including the former director of Natural Product Research Institute.

Effects of Kampo herbal medicine on plasma melatonin concentration in patients.

There are studies reporting that some natural products containing melatonin. Sleep disturbance and nocturnal polyuria are related to abnormal biorhythm. It is possible that kampo medicine may influence biorhythm. We therefore examined the symptoms and plasma melatonin of patients treated with rokumi-gan, hachimi-jio-gan, gosha-jinki-gan and seishinrenshi-in. Furthermore, the concentration of four kampo medicines and crude drugs making up these formulations were investigated. Diurnal plasma melatonin was not affected by Rokumi-gan, but tended to be lowered by treatment with hachimi-jio-gan, gosha-jinki-gan and seishinrenshi-in. Melatonin was present in several extracts from crude drugs, namely Rehmanniae radix, Moutan cortex, Cinnamomi cortex, Aconiti tuber, Plantaginis semen, Scutellariae radix and Lycii radicis cortex.