Study on the cold and hot properties of medicinal herbs by thermotropism in mice behavior.
It is a common sense that chewing a mint leaf causes a cold feeling, while masticating a piece of ginger root is associated with a hot sensation. The Traditional Chinese Medicine has termed this phenomenon as cold and hot properties of herbs and applied them in treating certain human diseases successfully for thousands of years. Here, we have developed an Animal Thermotropism Behavior Surveillance System, and by using this device and other approaches, we not only verified the existence of, but also characterized and quantitated the cold and hot properties of medicinal herbs in animal behavioral experiments. The results suggested that the hot and cold properties of herbal drugs indeed correlated with the alteration of animal behavior in search for residence temperature.
Zhao
Yan-Ling
YL
China Military Institute of Chinese Materia Medica, 302 Military Hospital, 100# the 4th Ring Road, Beijing 100039, PR China.
Wang
Jia-Bo
JB
Xiao
Xiao-He
XH
Zhao
Hai-ping
HP
Zhou
Can-ping
CP
Zhang
Xue-ru
XR
Ren
Yong-shen
YS
Jia
Lei
L
D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D003080:Cold Temperature; D006358:Hot Temperature; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D010946:Plants, Medicinal; D012677:Sensation