If I take Chinese medicine containing strychnine for joint pain, will the toxicity of strychnine persist in my body for a long time and cause diseases such as myocardial infarction?

No, the toxicity of strychnine is greatly reduced after concocting, as long as it is not taken in excess, it will not be poisonous. Its toxic components are strychnine and strychnine, which are alkaloids, not heavy metals, and can be broken down in the body without accumulation. The following is a strychnine concoction quality and toxicity analysis report: excerpts below hope you can help.

Analysis of the quality and toxicity of strychnine concoction

Bai Lie'e Yang Fusheng

Luohandong Township Health Center, Jingchuan County, Gansu Province, Gansu Jingchuan 744305

Abstract: Strychnine is bitter in taste, cold in nature and toxic. It belongs to liver and spleen meridians. Because of its high toxicity, the traditional concoction method is more, and the quality is difficult to control, this paper takes the effect of ancient and modern concoction method on strychnine and strychnine, and puts forward a more applicable, safe and simple concoction method, which is conducive to the improvement of the safety of the clinical use of medicines.

Keywords: Chinese medicine concoction, strychnine, pharmacological analysis

Chinese classification number R283.1; R991 Literature identification code B Article number 1007-8517(2008}10-0010-02

Strychnine, also known as Bitter fruit, fenmu turtle, horse before, big eight square, for the strychnine family plant strychnine mature seeds. It is bitter in taste, cold in fear, and highly toxic. It belongs to the liver and spleen meridians. Effects: Detoxifying, dispersing knots, invigorating and relieving pain. It is used for rheumatism and paralysis, numbness and paralysis, carbuncle and swelling pain, bruises and other diseases, "to open the meridians and channels, through the joints of the work is far better than the other drugs" ("Medicine Zhongzhong Ganshi Lu"). Strychnine has been used for a long time in clinical practice, indicating that it has certain curative effects, but the product is toxic, and must be strictly concocted before it can be used in medicine. The quality and toxicity of strychnine is analyzed below.

1 The purpose and significance of strychnine concoction

The main active ingredient of strychnine is alkaloids, accounting for about 2% to 5%, 16 alkaloids have been isolated, the most important of which is strychnine (Strychnine strych-nine) and strychnine (Brucine), the content of which accounts for 1% to 1.4%, the two alkaloids are both the main alkaloids, which are the main alkaloids. These two alkaloids are both the main bioactive components and the main toxic components. Its optimal effective amount and slightly toxic amount is close to that of the therapeutic safety range is small, the dosage of a little careless, will cause toxic reactions, so historically, doctors pay great attention to its concoctions. The purpose of the concoction is to reduce toxicity, to ensure efficacy, remove the skin, and make the hard texture of the herbs become crispy, easy to crush, conducive to the absorption of active ingredients. According to the relevant experimental research, the concoction has a certain effect on the content of strychnine and strychnine in strychnine. High-temperature treatment can make the content of strychnine, especially strychnine, decrease significantly, and can remove most of the strychnine which is toxic and has poor therapeutic effect. The use of different auxiliaries such as vinegar-roasted, deep-fried, licorice system can reduce the toxicity, and the content of strychnine and strychnine in vinegar-soaked products can be greatly reduced. Cooked with skimmed sour milk, strychnine can be removed 60%, while the effect on strychnine is not significant, which fully demonstrates that by concocting can be achieved both to reduce its toxicity, without loss of the active ingredients of the purpose.

2 strychnine concoction method

There are dozens of strychnine concoction methods, the former have soil fried, deep-fried, sand hot, licorice hot, fire ash mixing fried, lime hot, bean curd system, milk boiled, children's urine soaked in fried, mung bean boiled, boiled in rice slop, boiled in ginger, vinegar, hot charcoal storage and other methods. However, because of the complicated operating procedures, the quality of the concoction is not reliable and other factors, most of them are no longer used. The Chinese People's Pharmacopoeia (1985 edition) provides for the use of sand scalding method, specific method: the sand in the pot heated and stirred until slippery, poured into the net strychnine, stir-fried with a fire until the bulge, outside the brown or dark brown, reddish-brown and small bubbles on the inner surface to the degree. According to experimental research, some people think that the content of strychnine and strychnine (or alkaloid content) of strychnine should be stipulated as the index of quality standard of medicinal herbs, instead of stipulating a specific concoction method.

The Pharmacopoeia (1995 edition) has absorbed this suggestion. Because of the shortcomings of the sand blanching method, for example, the temperature of sand blanching and the time of frying are not easy to grasp, so that the herbs are not evenly heated, and some of them are partially scorched and charred, which leads to a great difference in the content of toxic ingredients in the various batches of strychnine concocted products, therefore, the relevant experts have made some improvements as follows:

1) Electric baking method: Take the clean strychnine in an enameled plate and put it in an oven directly, with a temperature control of 240~(( 2), baking for 3 minutes, and then baking for 3 minutes. 2, bake for 3 minutes, immediately remove, cool, remove the fluff. Finished product properties are dark yellow or brown, bulging, brittle, no fluff. Determined, the content of strychnine in 1.39% to 2.17%, in line with the Pharmacopoeia requirements.

② far-infrared baking method: far-infrared oven simulation of sand blanching method of temperature and conditions, take 100-110 ℃ drying water, and then 18O ℃ baking 8 minutes, the appearance of the artillery products and texture basically the same as the sand blanching method. This method of uniform heating of herbs, easy to operate, safe.

③ puffing concoction method; the use of similar popcorn machine puffing device, the strychnine into the device. Expansion conditions: pressure 0.7mpa, time 5 minutes, placed in 400 grams. Sealed and evenly heated, when the pressure reaches a certain value, the sudden opening of the decompression, the herbs were puffed and sprayed, and then cooled. The content of strychnine as an indicator to compare the quality of strychnine raw products, artillery products and puffed artillery products, the results show that the rate of decoction of strychnine in puffed artillery products increased significantly.

3 Quality control standard of strychnine concoction

The quality control standard of strychnine concoction, the Pharmacopoeia specifies that the content of strychnine is the index, because the mature seeds of strychnine contain alkaloids of 2% to 5%, which are mainly scleroderma lucidum (strychnine), accounting for about 30~50% of the total alkaloids. Strychnine has a strong excitatory effect on the spinal cord, and can cause poisoning if taken for a long time or in excess. The drug is quickly absorbed and acts after oral administration, and large doses can cause convulsions. Adults oral 5 lOmg that is the phenomenon of poisoning, 30mg can cause death. Animal experiments have confirmed that the toxicity of strychnine is mainly caused by the poisonous ingredient strychnine, and its toxicity intensity is proportional to the content of strychnine, thus controlling the content of strychnine can achieve the purpose of controlling the toxicity of strychnine. 1995 edition of Pharmacopoeia stipulates that the content of strychnine in the raw strychnine dried products shall not be less than 1.2%. The strychnine content of strychnine is determined according to the above standard after crushing strychnine into fine powder, plus starch mixing and regulating into strychnine powder (strychnine content of 0.78-0.82%), per 13 dosage of 0.3-0.6 grams, into the pills and dispersions, which is a safe and effective dosage.

4 strychnine concoction to reduce the mechanism

Strychnine alkaloids contained in strychnine is mainly fenugreek alkaloids (strychnine) accounted for about 30% of the total alkaloids ~ 50%, followed by strychnine, the content of which is roughly equal to the earth's Ning. Strychnine is the main toxic component of strychnine, but also an important active ingredient. The effect of strychnine is similar to that of strychnine, but with low efficacy and high toxicity. The efficacy of strychnine is only 1/40 of strychnine, while the toxicity is 20 times greater than strychnine. The content of strychnine and strychnine in strychnine has a great relationship with the heating temperature and heating time. ± The melting point of strychnine is 268℃, the melting point of strychnine is 178℃, when the sand blanching temperature is 220～260℃, due to the difference of the melting point, the content of strychnine began to decline, and this temperature has long exceeded the melting point of strychnine, so its content decreased significantly, so that the toxicity of large, poor efficacy of strychnine most of the removal. It has been reported that cooking with skimmed sour milk for 2-3 hours can remove 60% of the strychnine, while the effect on strychnine is not significant. This indicates that high temperature treatment in the concoction can both reduce toxicity and achieve the purpose of maintaining the efficacy of the drug. Therefore, it is advisable to control the temperature of sand blanching strychnine between 220-260~C. According to the relevant research, strychnine in the process of concocting, can be converted into nitrogen oxides, can also be converted into heterostructures such as isostigmine, isostrychnine, etc., but mainly converted into nitrogen oxides. The toxicity of strychnine nitrogen oxides is only about 1/10 of that of hyoscyamine, and the toxicity of strychnine nitrogen oxides is only about 1/15 of that of strychnine, but the pharmacological effects of both of them are similar to those of strychnine and strychnine, which means that the nitrogen oxides converted by strychnine and strychnine in the process of concocting not only reduce the toxicity, but also maintain the pharmacological activity. Licorice concoction of strychnine has some significance in reducing toxicity. Pharmacological experimental research proved that the LD50 of raw strychnine was 0.657 g/kg, the LD50 of sand blanching was 0.728 g/kg, the LD50 of raw strychnine and licorice (in the ratio of 1:3) was 2.0 g/kg after the same decoction, and the licorice contained glycyrrhizin sweetener which could reduce the toxicity and lethality of strychnine, and its detoxification may be attributed to the presence of strychnic acid. Therefore, the mechanism that licorice can significantly reduce the toxicity of strychnine is worthy of in-depth study. Some studies believe that strychnine is not the only active ingredient, such as the strychnine family of plants in the same genus Yunhai strychnine (also known as Luzhong fruit S. ignatii) and the seeds contain strychnine up to 1.5%, but it can not be applied as a raw medicine. After the removal of strychnine, the toxicity of strychnine is reduced, and the clinical application of strychnine still has the effect of significantly reducing "blood sedimentation" and anti-"O", so it can be seen that in addition to strychnine, there are other active ingredients in the therapeutic effect. Therefore, we can't think that the principle of strychnine concoction only lies in the control of the content of strychnine, and the principle of its action is still to be studied in depth.

5 Strychnine toxicity

Strychnine and strychnine can make the central nervous system excited. Firstly, it enhances the excitability of spinal cord reflexes and makes them hyperreflexive. Secondly, it excites the respiratory center and vasomotor center of the spinal cord, and increases the sensitivity of the sensory centers of the cerebral cortex (sight, hearing and smell). When the poison reaches a certain amount, it produces convulsions, which are central, spinal, reflex, and generalized. As a result of strong spinal motor impulses, all transverse muscles are contracted. In large quantities, death results from exhaustion and paralysis of the central nervous system. There are also cases in which symptoms worsen after taking the drug, but the therapeutic purpose can be achieved instead. For example, in the Qing Dynasty, there was a book called "The Complete Surgery" written by Wang Hongxu. Wang Hongxu's "Surgical Quan Sheng Jie" has recorded that strychnine has a reaction which is not the same as that of toxicity: "After taking strychnine, the pain will be more painful, the numbness will be more numb, and dizziness will be caused", and "If you do not feel the pain and numbness after taking strychnine, you need to take it until you feel it". Some people in the use of compound strychnine loose (lumbar pain Ning) treatment of lumbar intervertebral disc herniation cases, observed that half an hour after serving, some cases of pain aggravation or lumbar back muscles have a stiffening sensation, and observed the emergence of a therapeutic response to the person, the efficacy of the emergence of faster. It is also believed that the efficacy of strychnine is also good if there is a slight toxic reaction after taking the medicine, and those who have no reaction after taking the medicine show that they have tolerance, and the greater the amount of tolerance, the worse the efficacy of strychnine. There are also strychnine treatment of neurological diseases, observed that after 1 hour of medication, there is a stiffness of the limbs, lasting about 2 hours after the relief, after the recovery of the patient feel the limbs easier than before, especially the lower limbs flexion and extension of the former flexible, that this acute mild toxicity may play a benign stimulation of the spinal cord to achieve a better therapeutic effect, which needs to be further researched.