Acupunct Electrother Res. 1991 ; 16(1-2): 27-43.

Accurate localization of organ representation areas of the tongue, using the Bi-Digital O-Ring Test: its clinical application, and re-evaluation of classical Oriental tongue diagnosis--Part I.

Omura Y.

Heart Disease Research Foundation, New York, N.Y.

In spite of the importance of tongue diagnosis in Oriental Medicine, a very rough assignment of only a limited number of the major internal organs is known, and some of the assignments are not exactly the same, depending upon various schools of thought. In 1980, the author first developed a simple, quick, non-invasive, accurate method of localizing representation areas of internal organs, using the Bi-Digital O-Ring Test Molecular Identification Method based on the resonance phenomena between 2 identical substances or tissues, with a microscope slide of a specific internal organ as a reference control substance. The method was applied to the organ representation areas in the ears, hands, feet, cerebral cortex, and tongue. In this article for the first time detailed organ representation areas of the human tongue are being presented in comparison with currently known organ representation areas on the tongue. For convenience, the tongue can be divided into 3 parts: the anterior, the middle, and the posterior. On each side of the anterior part (1st part, area around the tip) of the tongue, the internal organs in the chest cavity are represented; from the mid-line to each side of the tip of the tongue, the oesophagus, thymus gland, lung (and trachea & bronchi), heart, and breast (over heart area) are represented. The middle (2nd) part of the tongue represents the digestive system, and the 3rd part represents the genito-urinary system. The 2nd part of the tongue represents the rectum, colon, cecum, appendix, small intestine, stomach, pancreas, liver, and gall bladder. The 2nd and 3rd parts of the tongue represent all the internal organs in the abdominal cavities and the genito-urinary area. The remaining one-third of the tongue, near the pharynx, is all related to the genito-urinary system with the exception of the spleen, which is located between the kidney and the adrenal gland representation areas. Within the triangular area formed by the sulcus terminalis, the anus is represented on both sides. Finally, at the peak of that triangle, i.e. the foramen cecum, the coccyx is represented. Extremities are represented at the sides of the tongue. The undersurface of the tongue starting from the tip of the tongue in the mid-line and going towards the root of the tongue along the frenulum in the mouth represents one kind of homunculus consisting of the neck, face, head, ears, upper & lower extremities and back of the body.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)