[Studies of the Chinese crude drug "Fangji" (1) herbological studies of name].
The Japanese Pharmacopoeia standardizes a Chinese crude drug "Bou-i" as the woody stem of Sinomenium acutum Rherder et Wilson of the family Menispermaceae. The Chinese Pharmacopoeia writes about the same drug under the name of "Fang-ji". The present herbological studies resulted in learning that the original written character for this drug is in China. The ancient Japanese misread it as "--" because of confusion between "--" and "--" in old Chinese herbals. The reason for changing "--" to "--" in China is presumed to be because the pronunciation of these characters changed in the Yuan dynasty, to "--" from "zi" to "si", and to "--" from "ki" to "tsi." That is, the original name "Fang-ji," written in today's Chinese phonetic symbols, can be used without big changes by switching the character from "--" to "--".
Mikage
Masayuki
M
Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kanazawa University, Ishikawa.
Yoshizawa
Chieko
C
D002681:China; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D049690:History, Ancient; D049692:History, Early Modern 1451-1600; D049691:History, Medieval; D049711:History, Modern 1601-; D010602:Pharmacopoeias as Topic / Q000266:history*; D010946:Plants, Medicinal; D009626:Terminology as Topic