Author Wu Yuanting
In 2015, Tu Youyou, an 85-year-old pharmacist at the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for her outstanding contributions to malaria treatment.
Tu Youyou mentioned in an interview with reporters that after many failed experiments, the ancient literature of Chinese medicine in China, "Elbow Reserve Emergency Formula", gave her inspiration and inspiration. There are a few sentences in the book "Elbow Reserve Emergency": "Artemisia annua is grasped, stained with two liters of water, twisted to take the juice, and served it." The "juice twisting" method described in it is different from the "water frying" method of traditional Chinese medicine. She realized that the "water frying" method may destroy the active ingredients in Artemisia annua due to high temperature, so she switched to a low boiling point solvent, and the medicinal effect was significantly improved. After repeated experiments, she isolated samples of Artemisia annua extract, showed a 100% inhibition rate of Plasmodium murine, and finally successfully extracted artemisinin, the antimalarial active ingredient.
The author of "Elbow Reserve Emergency Formula" is called Ge Hong, this book is the earliest medical clinical "first aid manual" in ancient China, and it is also one of the earliest textbooks for popularizing the knowledge of traditional Chinese medicine. The so-called "elbow" means that it can be carried behind the elbow of the arm, and the so-called "emergency" means that it can be used to treat patients. Most commendably, the book provides a detailed description of the symptoms of smallpox, scrub worm disease, schistosomiasis, and tuberculosis for the first time in the world.
Smallpox is one of the oldest and most mortal diseases. Ge Hong recorded in the "Elbow Reserve Emergency" that one year, there was an epidemic of infectious diseases, when the disease occurred, the patient had herpes on the head, and then spread throughout the body, starting with small red dots, soon becoming white pustules, breaking when touched, herpes ulcerated while growing, causing high fever, most of the patients died, and those who survived, left a small black scar on the skin, and after a year the black scar became the same color as the skin. The disease he described was exactly what he later called smallpox.
Western scientific circles generally believe that the Arab physician Reess was the first to record smallpox, in fact, Ge Hong predates him by more than 500 years. It was not until 1796, when the British scientist Chenna invented the method of cowpox, that the infectious disease gradually disappeared from our lives.
Another name for scrub disease, called jungle typhus, is an acute infectious disease caused by the oriental body of scrub worm disease (Rickettsia scrubiosis), rodents are the main source of infection, and chigger mite larvae are the vector. In severe cases, life-threatening cardiopulmonary and renal failure can be severe.
In the "Elbow Reserve Emergency", Ge Hong recorded: "There are many sand lice in the mountains and rivers, very thin, slightly invisible, and people take a bath in the water, and bathe in the water, and this insect is in the water, the human body, and the rainy grass on cloudy days, and also the people." And he got into the skin... The skin of the first obtained is red, like a small bean and rice millet grain, and the hand is on the red, and the pain is like a thorn. After three days, Ling Baijie was strong, the pain was cold and hot, and the sores on the red. This worm gradually enters the bone, then kills. ”
The popular saying of the above passage is: the sand lice burrow into the skin, the skin appears red spots, the size of millet grains of bean millet, and the touch is like a sting. After 3 days, the whole body is painful and feverish, the joints are painful, and after that, the skin is sore and crusted, and the severe ones cause death. Fever, rash, eschar, and illness are recorded in the same way as scrub worm disease.
In the past, the scientific community believed that in 1810 the Japanese Hashimoto Washitoshi was the first to report scrub worm disease, but in fact Ge Hong predate him by more than 1,000 years.
Schistosomiasis is a chronic parasitic disease caused by schistosomiasis of the genus Schistosomiasis, which can parasitize the human hepatic portal vascular system.
The diseases recorded in the "Elbow Reserve Emergency" are poisoning, archery, stinging and other diseases, and people are infected in the stream or by the stream. "The first cold, the slight pain in the head, the pain in the eyes, the annoyance in the heart, the vibration of the limbs, and the strength of the bones. Anxious, but sleepy, awake, twilight. The hands are cold, and in three days, the worms will eat the sores, no pain, no itching, no cold. Man perceives that what is seen is knowledge, not that which is healing. After six or seven days, the lower part of the pus rupture, the insects eat the five internal organs, and the heat is extremely annoying. Note can't help it, eight or nine days, good doctors can not be treated, feel urgent, when looking deeply at the lower part. If there is a sore, it is as red as the flesh cutter is impotent, the most urgent. If the sores are like the teeth of a lily fish, they are poisonous, and they are as slow as they are, and they must be burned. ”
The colloquial meaning of these words is that at first the patient may have a chill and fever, vesicles on the skin, and can cause herpes diarrhea, that is, fever and headache, sluggish limbs, and symptoms of diarrhea in the stool, similar to the modern description of schistosomiasis (acute phase).
Ge Hong once wrote of a corpse disease: "There are thirty-six to ninety-nine kinds of disease changes, roughly making people cold and hot, drenched, trance, silent, not aware of their suffering, and everywhere is evil, accumulating over the years, gradually stagnating, so that death, after death, re-transmission of others, and even extinction." Those who are aware of this waiting, it is cheap to cure it urgently. "This disease is now tuberculosis.
Ge Hong also mentioned the use of artemisia annua to treat cold and hot malaria, the method is to "hold the artemisia annua, stain it with two liters of water, twist the juice, and serve it as much as possible." This method inspired Tu Youyou. Studies have now shown that Artemisia annua has antibacterial, antiviral, antimalarial, antiparasitic, anti-tumor, antiarrhythmic effects, and has an effect on the immune system.
In 1881, the French microbiologist Pasteur began experiments on the treatment of rabies, his team went from collecting saliva from sick dogs and injecting them into the brains of healthy dogs, and then he took a small piece of spinal cord from a rabbit who had died of rabies and hung it in a sterile flask to make it "dry". The dried spinal cord and distilled water were then injected into the dog, and the dog miraculously survived, which was the world's first rabies treatment. And this method, Ge Hong adopted more than 1,000 years ago.
In "Elbow Reserve", Ge Hong mentioned the treatment of rabies. After being bitten by a dog (i.e., a mad dog), the patient is very painful, can not be stimulated a little, hear a little noise, will convulse and spasm, and even hear the sound of pouring water will also convulse, so some people call mad dog disease also called "waterphobia". The method proposed by Ge Hong is to "still kill the bitten dog, take the brain to apply it, and then do not recur." It's the same as Pasteur's approach.
In fact, Ge Hong's life was not smooth, he experienced war and turmoil.
Ge Hong was born in the Jiangnan Shi clan and was the nephew of Ge Xuan, a famous alchemist of the Three Kingdoms. Later, his family fell into the middle of the road and lived in poverty, but he continued to study hard, and later worshiped Zheng Yin, a Confucian scholar, as a teacher. After the stabilization of the Eastern Jin Dynasty regime, he lived in seclusion in Luofu Mountain in Guangdong, where he practiced Dan and wrote books and sayings until the age of 81, which was the end of a long life at that time.
He himself embraced Puzi, and in the book "Baopuzi", he wrote down many life testimonials, such as the gentleman's inability to look at people; the breadth of learning lies in tirelessness, and the indefatigability lies in guzhi.
In the author's opinion, Ge Hong's "Elbow Reserve" not only records Ge Hong's own achievements, but also is a treasure house formed by ancient Chinese medicine after being passed down through the generations, and is a comprehensive embodiment of the valuable experience left by the Chinese nation after fighting against various diseases.
Today, in the process of building an innovative country and promoting the development of the biomedical industry, we must not only focus on Western medicine, but also pay attention to the various classic prescriptions in the treasures of Chinese medicine, which contain infinite treasures.