dit da jow: The science behind it.

[doc]

Rehmanniae Glutinosae

No western medicinal uses.

[doc]

Myrrha

According to Ovid's Metamorphoses, Myrrha, the daughter of Cinyras and Cenchreis, lusted for her father. Horrified by her emotions, Myrrha attempted to hang herself, but her nursemaid saved her at the last minute. After much imploring, the nursemaid discovered the cause of Myrrha's grief. Though appalled, the nursemaid devised way for Myrrha to consummate her lust for Cinyras, believing the sin to be a better option than suicide. Before the first sexual encounter, the nursemaid even urged Myrrha to go through with it. While Myrrha's mother, Cenchreis, was away at Ceres's festival, Myrrha had sex with her father, Cinyras. Cinyras was unaware of the girl's identity because these nightly encounters occurred in the dark while Cinyras was intoxicated. One night Cinyras brought in a lamp, discovered the girl was Myrrha, drew his sword, and chased her. Myrrha fled, and wandered for nine months until she came to rest at Sabo. After Myrrha prayed to the gods that she neither live nor die (since the severity of her crime would shock both the living and the dead), the gods turned her into the myrrh tree. The child Myrrha had conceived with Cinyras was ready to deliver, and Lucina enabled the birth from the tree. The child of this incestuous union, Adonis, was taken care of by Naiads and bathed in the myrrh which were Myrrha's tears.

It is appropriate that Aphrodite's instrument of punishment is lust. Often the wrath of a god takes an extreme form of the power of the god's domain. For example, Bacchus punished mortals who spurned his cult by causing insanity and madness that often resulted in cannibalism, a perverted excess of the realms over which he has power, the life-force and rapture. Likewise, Aphrodite punished Cenchreis's arrogance through an aberration of her domain by causing the most vile of all loves to afflict Myrrha.

I LIKE IT.

lol...

[zachsan]

well hey, if you get 1 effective ingredient for every 7 present ingredients, i'd say that's not all too bad without the benefit of the scientific method.

[doc]

Citri Reticulatae Viride

From Green Tangerine Orange Peel, no western medicinal uses.

[doc]

"Rhei", Da Huang (Rhubarb)

The main constituents of RH are a series of Anthraquinone derivatives: emodin, rhein, aloe-emodin, chrysophanol, physcion, alizarin, citreorosein, etc. Dianthrones: sennoside A~F, sennidin A, palmidin A-C, rheidin A-C etc. Other Glycosides: stilbene, naphthalene, chromones, phenylbutanone etc. Tannins: lindleyin, rhatannin, catechin, epicatechin, gallic acid, cinnamic acid etc.

The anthraquinones, aloe emodin, emodin and rhein were found to inhibit in vitro growth of Bacillus subtilis and Staphylococcus aureus, with rhein being the most effective [1]. Antimicrobial activity against Escherichia coli, Micrococcus luteus, Candida albicans, Clostridium perfringens, Fusobacterium varium and Bacteriodes fragilis was also noted [2, 3]. The antibacterial activity appears to be the result of mitochondrial respiratory chain inhibition. Rhein, emodin and aloe emodin specifically interfere with NADH dehydrogenase. The water extract has been found to have an action against Herpes [33] and Influenza virus [34].

Significant haemostatic effect has been demonstrated in Rheum spp, both experimentally and clinically. RH has been found effective in treatment and prevention of experimental gastric bleeding and ulcer formation in rats [4], and in clinical gastro-intestinal bleeding [5, 6, 7]. RH shortened coagulation time, reduced capillary permeability, and improved capillary fragility. It also promoted platelet formation by the bone marrow and induced proliferation of blood capillaries [8, 9].

Emodin was found to be a strong inhibitor of respiration in Ehrlich ascites carcinoma cells [10]. This was also observed in leukaemia L1210 cells [11]. Emodin strongly inhibited the oxidation and dehydrogenation of some amino acids and intermediate metabolites of glucose in Ehrlich ascites carcinoma cells. At 50mg/ml emodin inhibited the oxidation and dehydrogenation of lactic acid in these cells by 87 & 91% respectively. It was further reported that the anthraquinone derivatives rhein, emodin and aloe emodin had an in vivo inhibitory effect against P388 leukaemia in mice. Their survival time was markedly increased and the ascites volume and tumour cell number were decreased [12]. In general, it is thought that the antineoplastic activity of RH is mainly due to the inhibition of oxidation and dehydrogenation of the cancer cells [13

The purgative activity of RH appears to be due to rhein and the sennoside components [14]. Sennoside content correlated highly with laxative activity, whereas the correlation between anthraquinone content and laxative activity was low [15]. Studies on the oxidised products of sennosides suggest that the sennosides act predominantly on large intestine motility after their degradation by colonic microorganisms [16]. The mechanism appears to be hydrolysis of sennosides by microbial b-glycosidase in a stepwise fashion to sennidins A & B, which are then reduced to rheinanthrone, the laxative principle [17, 18]. The active principles of RH seem to act by stimulating Auerbach's plexus or the submucosal nerve plexus [19]. Other investigators found that RH increased the water content of the large intestine, producing a watery stool [20]. Interestingly, small doses of RH (0.05-0.3g/kg) in some patients can be used to treat diarrhoea or may increase constipation. At these dosage levels, it is thought that the effect of the tannins in binding stool overcomes the laxative effect. It may also be due to the differences in gut flora and consequent metabolites. Certain species contain more tannins than others, for example R. palmatum contains about 11% tannin, whereas other species range from 4-7%.

Rhubarb has a suppressive action on rat ultromotivity. The ultromotive stimulant action of methamphetamine was markedly reduced. Irritability and aggressiveness induced in rats was markedly suppressed by the administration of RH, and, although rather mild, conditioned evasive response was also suppressed. Also, stereotypical behaviour and circling movement induced by apomorphine was suppressed [21].

Recent work in China and Japan has demonstrated that oral or rectal administration of RH is useful in reducing Blood Urea Nitrogen (BUN) in patients with chronic renal failure, and may prevent or delay progression to end stage uraemic syndrome. Clinical trials found that progression to renal failure was retarded and uraemic symptoms of nausea and anorexia were significantly reduced [22, 23]. The active principles involved in this effect appear to be the tannin fraction [24].

A common method of delivery today is via enema, usually conducted once or twice per week. This method supplements dialysis in areas with inadequate facilities, and enables a reduction in the need for dialysis in some patients. It is thought the surface area of the large intestine enables enough osmotic transfer of BUN from the blood to the intestinal lumen to significantly reduce the load on the kidney [25]. Oral administration has also been utilised successfully, using such formulas as Wen Pi Tang, which includes between 4 and 12 grams of RH.

Lindleyin, one of the tannin fractions of rhubarb, has about the same anti-inflammatory action as aspirin and phenylbutazone and suppresses early stage inflammation [26-28]. It also has a peripheral analgesic action which is comparable with aspirin and phenylbutazone; its effect on joint inflammation.

Well, we got something here.

Finally...

[doc]

i'm also pretty sure there's some kind of fermentation (or just adding-of-liquor) process in there somewhere. what effect would this have on the effectiveness of the other ingredients?

Dissolving the agents in alcohol does two things: it increases their solubility, thus making the agents more cabable of being absorbed by the skin, and, in some cases, either makes the agents more or less toxic.

The addition of alcohol is primarily used to dissolve all the agents together, and make them more absorbable.

[shaolinstylee]

why is the sky blue?

Reynolds Refraction.. Can be negated using a yellow filter.

Ah, the good old days, Remote Sensing, everything you wanted to know about the atmosphere, plus dealing with satelite imagery.


Wow, good work doc. What website are you getting that stuff from, I'd be interested in poking around there.

[Maestro]

hmm

if you dont know the usefulness of dit da jow, your a pussy and your not getting hit hard enough

amitabha

[doc]

I poked around a hell of a lot of places to dig that stuff up. Tried to be as unbiased as possible. Took some time to thresh through the ****, and find the "most scientific" information possible.

[zachsan]

i like maestro's science better than regular science.

- zach

[arhat]

different strokes for different folks...

but for you to have a truly effective jow on your hands you need horse coin. Ma Chieh.

You can't ingest the jow made with that, as that is poisonous when taken internally. Why, I have no idea...but who wants to be the tester for that.

I will tell you that if you make your own, it will take several pounds of bacon cooked in your microwave to disperse the reek, and if you have investigative pets they will throw up.

[zachsan]

by the way, i mixed this up with a bunch of other questions, but i really am interested in finding out how often is too often to apply the jow.

with cosmic power of attorney,
- zach

[daodejing]

Ahem, from the herbs classes I've taken so far, three pop out at me, and thats just from the first recipe.
Dang Gui tonifies blood I beleive.
Ding Xiang, is an interior warming herb which I had to study for a recent final. We memorized it with this monicer, "Ding Xiang restores the yang, warms the kidneys, hiccups gone." Number one interior warming herb for hiccups.
Da Huang is a cathartic herb which drives out water. Its a very potent herb with numerous functions, I beleive the applicable ones are that it drains fire, drains damp heat (which might help counteract the negative effects of the vodka, if the dit da jow is imbibed), clears toxic heat for burns sores and carbuncles when applied topically or imbibed, stops bleeding, invigorates the blood and dispels blood stagnation when in the form of Jiu Zhi Da Huang (treated in wine, as in our case).

[daodejing]

Doc the tangerine peel, if it's Chen Pi, which i think it is... tonifies Qi. And Zachsan, its not a matter of 7 useless ingredients with 1 active ingredient, they're all good and they're all there for a reason. If anyone is really interested I can post some of the info on each herb in the recipe directly from my textbooks. But that will be in TCMese and won't have the mindnumbing clinical statistics and data of doc's posts on the subject.

[zachsan]

well talk of damp heat and excessive yang can be mindnumbing to some, too.

- zach