{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,16]],"date-time":"2026-09-16T06:04:54Z","timestamp":1789538694343,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":42,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,16]],"date-time":"2026-09-16T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1789516800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100012554","name":"Hubei Provincial Department of Education","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100012554","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Pharmacol."],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Background<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      Bencao Gangmu (\u672c\u8349\u7eb2\u76ee, 1596), Li Shizhen\u2019s Compendium of Materia Medica, is among the most comprehensive pre-modern compilations of East Asian materia medica, yet the full-text distribution of its content on the spleen\u2013stomach (\n                      <jats:italic>pi-wei<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u813e\u80c3) system, the digestive functional axis of Chinese medicine, has never been systematically quantified or mapped onto modern pharmacological evidence.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Aim of the study<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      To construct a reproducible text-statistical inventory of all spleen- and stomach-related entries in Bencao Gangmu; to characterize the resulting pharmacopoeia by plant identity, taste\u2013nature (\n                      <jats:italic>qi-wei<\/jats:italic>\n                      ), channel tropism (\n                      <jats:italic>gui-jing<\/jats:italic>\n                      ), declared function, indication and preparation form; and to relate the most frequently recorded botanical drugs to current pharmacological evidence on gastrointestinal disease.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Materials and methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      The Jinling (1596) edition was searched in full text for\n                      <jats:italic>pi<\/jats:italic>\n                      (\u813e),\n                      <jats:italic>wei<\/jats:italic>\n                      (\u80c3) and\n                      <jats:italic>pi-wei<\/jats:italic>\n                      (\u813e\u80c3). Candidate hits were adjudicated by two reviewers against predefined inclusion criteria (Cohen\u2019s \u03ba = 0.84) and coded into a relational dataset (drug, taste\u2013nature, channel tropism, function, indication, preparation). Plant identities were authenticated against World Flora Online and the Chinese Pharmacopoeia (2025) and reported under the ConPhyMP framework.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      Of 994 retained entries, 703 specified a concrete drug or therapy. The most frequent botanical drugs were\n                      <jats:italic>Atractylodes macrocephala<\/jats:italic>\n                      Koidz. (\n                      <jats:italic>Baizhu<\/jats:italic>\n                      , n = 26),\n                      <jats:italic>Zingiber officinale<\/jats:italic>\n                      Roscoe (\n                      <jats:italic>Shengjiang<\/jats:italic>\n                      , n = 25) and\n                      <jats:italic>Atractylodes lancea<\/jats:italic>\n                      (Thunb.) DC. (\n                      <jats:italic>Cangzhu<\/jats:italic>\n                      , n = 20). Sweet (n = 16), warm (n = 15) and slightly-cold (n = 14) taste\u2013natures dominated; channel tropism converged on the spleen (32%) and the spleen\u2013stomach pair (26%); the leading functions were spleen-tonifying (n = 46) and qi-replenishing (n = 41); the leading indication was\n                      <jats:italic>fan-wei<\/jats:italic>\n                      (food regurgitation, n = 108). Decoction accounted for 79% of preparation records and medicinal porridge (\n                      <jats:italic>yao-zhou<\/jats:italic>\n                      ) for 11%.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      Bencao Gangmu codifies a balanced spleen\u2013stomach pharmacotherapy prioritizing sweet\u2013warm tonification counterweighted by a deliberate cooling\u2013draining arm. The leading botanical drugs converge on phytochemical leads, including atractylenolides, gingerols\/shogaols, atractylodin\/\u03b2-eudesmol, berberine and processed-\n                      <jats:italic>Pinellia<\/jats:italic>\n                      alkaloids, with documented effects on gastrointestinal motility, mucosal protection, gut-microbiota modulation and anti-inflammatory activity, providing a reproducible bridge between classical Chinese materia medica and contemporary ethnopharmacology.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fphar.2026.1889778","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,16]],"date-time":"2026-09-16T05:32:28Z","timestamp":1789536748000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Pharmacotherapy of the spleen and stomach in Li Shizhen\u2019s Bencao Gangmu (Compendium of materia medica, 1596): a text-statistical analysis of 994 entries and a bridge to modern pharmacology"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Wan","family":"Sun","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Hubei University of Chinese Medicine","place":["Wuhan, Hubei, China"]},{"name":"Hubei Shizhen Laboratory","place":["Wuhan, Hubei, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,16]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"173735","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ejphar.2020.173735","article-title":"Atractylenolides, essential components of Atractylodes-based traditional herbal medicines: Antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anticancer potentialities","volume":"891","author":"Bailly","year":"2021","journal-title":"Eur. 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