Mineral medicines of the East: an analysis of records in historical Chinese and Japanese medical texts

The classification of historical medical texts in this study is based on the characteristics of their content. The types of historical texts serving as data sources for mineral medicines are similar in China and Japan, and the recorded mineral medicine species, compound types, and frequently recorded varieties also show a high degree of similarity, indicating that Kampo medicine in Japan extensively absorbed the theoretical foundations of mineral medicines from TCM. However, the higher number of occurrences of sodium compound-based mineral medicines in Japan, as well as the differences in the occurrence probabilities of commonly recorded mineral medicines between the two countries, to some extent reflect the localization tendencies of mineral medicine use in Kampo medicine. Mercury-based mineral medicines and gypsum documented in historical Chinese and Japanese medical texts showed minimal differences in associated conditions and co-occurring medicines. Many mercury-based mineral medicines shared generalizable features, highlighting the research significance and value of distinguishing mineral medicines by compound type to reveal overarching pharmacological trends. The comparison of gypsum's principal therapeutic indications between historical and modern records revealed a clear trend toward a narrower application scope for mineral medicines in the modern era. From the perspective of preserving and inheriting traditional mineral medicine knowledge, a large amount of mineral medicine knowledge in historical Chinese and Japanese medical texts remains to be explored. Furthermore, research supported by objective data-such as analyses of the pharmacological effects of co-occurring medicines related to mineral medicines and studies on the associations between these co-occurring medicines and their related conditions-remains urgently needed.