From the ancient times, herbs, animals and minerals were used as natural medicine to cure human disease in diverse form.
One of the representive forms in oral intakes is decoction.
But medicinal decoction degenerates as time passes by just as all foods do by the environmental factors, such as micro-organism, enzyme, light and the air.
Nowadays, as medicinal decoctions are kept in bottles and retort pouch for longtime, some datum point of preservation is necessary.
In order to measure the standard statistics for safe preservation, Yeonkyopaedogsan, applyed in case of carbuncle and infection inner boil, is used.
According to this experiment which measured pH, specific gravity, anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial effect, the results were as follows :
1. No remarkable change was found in pH and in the specific gravity of the decoction.
2. As for the anti-inflammatory effects induced by carrageenin in mice, no remarkable decrease in its medicinal efficacy was found until the 7th day, but it showed decrease in its medicinal efficacy from the 9th day.
3. As for the anti-inflammatory effects induced by acetic acid induced vascular permeability in mice, no remarkable decrease in its medicinal efficacy was found until the 9th day, but it showed decrease in its medicinal efficacy from the 11th day.
4. As for the antimicrobial effects induced by Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 65389, Shigella sonnei ATCC 9290, Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 27853, Streptococcus pyogenes ATCC 21059, Shigella flexneri ATCC 9199, no remarkable decrease in its medicinal efficacy was found until the 10th day, but it showed decrease in its medicinal efficacy from the 11th day.
According to the above results, pharmacological effect is kept until the 9th day, but it showed decrease in its effect from the 11th day.
In conclusion, keeping the natural medicinal decoction for more than 9 days should be avoided.
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