Interpretation on the Four-Properties of the Traditional Korean Drugs by the Effects on the Autonomic Nervous System

자율신경계를 통한 한약약성의 해석

In the pharmacology of traditional Korean medicine, each drug has its own specific characters. The different characters of drugs are employed to treat diseases, rectify the hyperactivity or hypoactivity of yin or yang, and help the body restore its normal physiological functions, consequently curing the diseases and restoring health. The various characters and functions of these drugs concerning medical treatment include drugs' properties, flavours, actions of lifting, lowering, floating and sinking, channel tropism, toxicity, etc. Among these theories, theory of properties and flavours of drugs provides the basis for drug analysis and application. 'Property' refers to the cold, hot, warm or cool nature of a drug. These properties of drugs are so sorted out according to the different actions of the drugs on the human body and thier therapeutic effects. Drugs which cure heat syndrome(yang syndrome) have a cold or cool property, whereas drugs which cure cold syndrome (yin syndrome) have hot or warm property Drugs of cold and cool-natured and drugs of warm and hot natures are of opposite properties. A cold-natured drug is different from a cool-natured on only in degree, and so is a warm-natured drug from a hot-natured drug. Most of the cool- or cold- natured drugs have the effects of clearing heat, purging fire, removing toxic substances, and nourishing yin, and are uese to cure heat syndromes. On the contrary, drugs of warm or hot nature usually have the effects of dispersing cold, warming up the interior, supporting yang, and treating collapse, and are therefore used to treat cold syndromes. We thought that the property of drug may be related to the autonomic nervous system in western medicine. In other words, drugs of warm or hot nature increase heart rate or acts like sympathomimetics, and drugs of cool or cold nature decrease heart rate or acts like para sympathomimetics . According to this hypothesis, we administrated some drugs to isolated rat right atrium in magnus tube. But there is no correlation between 'property' in traditional Korean medicine and autonomic nervous system in western medicine.