Yakushigaku Zasshi. 1995 ; 30(1): 46-53.

[Studies on the crude drugs used for the folk medicine described in "mimi-bukuro"]

Hamada T.

Kumamoto Institute of Technology.

"Mimi-bukuro" is a book written by Moriyasu Negishi in the Edo period. M. Negishi (1737-1815) was a magistrate in the town of Edo. He was very much interested in listening and recording many kinds of stories, which were told by the various kinds of people, such as public officers, samurais, merchants, doctors, etc. Among the stories of this book, some stories were found concerning folk medicine, medicinal substance and charms. In this report, I studied the medicines which were used in these stories. The medicines originated from zoological, botanical and mineral substances. As the results of my studies, there were zoological, botanical and mineral medicines were 13, 36 and 4 species, respectively. The examples of such medicines were as follows. Zoological samples: Felis catus, Gallus gallus domesticus, Anguilla japonica and Rapana venosa. Botanical samples: Artemisia princeps, Nicotiana tabacum, Panax ginseng, Terminaria chebula and Piper nigrum.