FIGURE 4

Figure 4. Entry on cannabis in the Compendium of Materia Medica.

In addition to these five representative bencao texts of different dynasties, records related to cannabis were reviewed from 84 additional pre-modern bencao texts dating from the twelfth century to the late nineteenth century. The sources included 6 bencao texts from the Song Dynasty (960–1279 AD), 4 texts from the Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368 AD), 32 texts from the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644 AD), and 47 texts from the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911 AD).

Most historical bencao texts that were written prior to the invention of printing in the Song Dynasty are no longer intact, but their content has been preserved in printed texts such as the Materia Medica Arranged According to Pattern (證類本草 Zheng Lei Ben Cao) from 1108 AD. Accordingly, the Materia Medica Arranged According to Pattern, which cited 25 previous historical sources in its discussion on cannabis, was selected as a representative source for pre-Song Dynasty content (Tang, 1999). An additional early source of records related to cannabis from the Treatise of the Five Viscera (五臟倫 Wu Zang Lun), a manuscript discovered in an archeological excavation at Dunhuang that is thought to date from the Tang Dynasty (618–907 AD), was also reviewed.

Additionally, four thematic bencao were reviewed to investigate records related to specific geographic regions and imported medicinals. These texts include the tenth century Materia Medica from Overseas (海藥本草 Hai Yao Ben Cao), the thirteenth century Materia Medica from Steep Mountainsides (履巉巖本草 Lu Chan Yan Ben Cao), the fifteenth century Yunnan Materia Medica (滇南本草 Dian Nan Ben Cao), and the nineteenth century Illustrated Reference of Botanical Nomenclature (植物名實圖考 Zhi Wu Ming Shi Tu Kao).

Finally, monographs on cannabis from a variety of modern materia medica compendiums were reviewed. In addition to each edition of the Chinese Pharmacopeia from 1977 to 2015, several twentieth century compendiums of materia medica were reviewed, including the Great Encyclopedia of Chinese Medicinals (中藥大辭典 Zhong Yao Da Ci Dian), the Sea of Chinese Medicinals (中華藥海 Zhong Hua Yao Hai), the National Collection of Chinese Herbal Medicines (全國中草藥彙編 Quan Guo Zhong Cao Yao Hui Bian), the Chinese Materia Medica (中華本草 Zhong Hua Ben Cao), and the Chinese Great Encyclopedia (中華大典 Zhong Hua Da Dian). Modern compilations focused on Chinese herbal formulas and ethnic minority medical traditions in Western China were also reviewed, including texts on Uighur, Yao, Miao, and Tibetan medicine. Additionally, publications from English and Chinese scientific journal databases such as CNKI, Wanfang, Google Scholar, and Scopus were analyzed based on a wide range of search terms related to Chinese medicine and cannabis in both English and Chinese.

Approach to Translation of Technical Terms
Preserving the traditional terminology of Chinese medicine is essential in order for translations to capture the original meaning of historical sources. In this work, a source-oriented approach to translation is utilized; in most cases, the technical terms used in translation can be cross referenced to the original Chinese using the terminology established in A Practical Dictionary of Chinese Medicine (Wiseman and Feng, 1998). Additional bilingual term lists referenced in the process of translation include: the Dictionary of the Ben cao gang mu, Volume 1: Chinese Historical Illness Terminology (Zhang and Unschuld, 2014), the WHO International Standard Terminologies on Traditional Medicine in the Western Pacific Region, and International Standard Chinese-English: Basic Nomenclature of Chinese Medicine.

In the context of cannabis, several unique challenges relate to the translation of the plant parts used, as historical sources offer conflicting descriptions of different plant parts. In particular, historical and contemporary sources are divided regarding the botanical structures that correspond to the terms mafen (麻蕡), mahua (麻花), and mabo (麻勃), as well as terms related to the fruit or seed such as mazi (麻子), maziren (麻子仁), and mashi (麻實). In this review, these terms are preserved via a combination of English, Pinyin, and Chinese, and the implications of their historical and contemporary confusion are discussed.

Identification of Traditional Actions and Indications That May Reflect Cannabinoids
In contemporary Chinese medicine, fiber-rich biotypes of cannabis provide the achenes used as huomaren (Cannabis Fructus). However, as the achenes of cannabis contain at most only trace amounts of cannabinoids such as CBD and Δ9-THC (Mölleken and Husmann, 1997), the indications of the achenes are unlikely to relate to cannabinoids and their observed effects are unreliable for differentiating the historical prevalence of different biotypes of cannabis in Chinese medical applications. Similarly, Chinese medical records related to other plant parts with minimal cannabinoid content, such as the stalks and roots of cannabis, are of limited value for differentiating historical biotypes or evaluating applications that may relate to cannabinoids. Thus, the primary plant parts that can be reasonably expected to illustrate effects that relate to cannabinoids are the leaf and female inflorescence. Accordingly, while the actions, indications, and properties of all parts of the cannabis plant were reviewed in the historical texts described above, the female inflorescence and leaf formed the focus of the investigation.

A review of the nature, flavor, actions, and indications of various cannabis plant parts in Chinese bencao reveals a number of terms that may indicate the presence of intermediate or drug biotypes of cannabis. For example, applications related to severe pain, perceived toxicity, or actions such as inducing anesthesia or hallucinations may reflect the historical presence of drug biotypes. Accordingly, the terminology associated with such effects was compared with descriptions of other drugs found in the Chinese materia medica that have known hallucinogenic or narcotic effects, such as Datura spp., Hyoscyamus niger L., and Papaver somniferum L. Additionally, the bencao literature was reviewed for other medical applications that have been associated with cannabinoid-rich preparations, including applications for conditions such as epilepsy and mental illness that may be related to the pharmacology of cannabidiol CBD rather than psychoactive cannabinoids such as Δ9-THC (Mechoulam et al., 2002; Devinsky et al., 2014).
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