2018秋en

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14 app. Autumn 2018During the Edo period (1603-1867), Nara became a center for the cultivation of crude drugs (shoyaku) used in kampo medicine. We spoke about the history of medicinal plant cultivation and its future prospects with Dr. Kozo Fukuda, the head of Fukuda Shoten, a principal herbal wholesaler in Nara prefecture.Domestic Production TodayWhat is the history of Fukuda Shoten?Fukuda: Documentation shows that our family handled crude drugs from around the Horeki era (1751-1763), but we know that our family were already herbal wholesalers during the 1600s. In the Edo period (1603-1867), Nara was directly controlled by the Shogunate, which promoted the cultivation of me-dicinal plants there, so there were many herbal wholesalers in the region at that time. Compared to agricultural prod-ucts, medicinal plants were more diffi-cult to cultivate, so I believe our family, with its experience and know-how, must have been active in providing technical cultivation support to farmers even dur-ing the Edo period.Early Showa era (1926-1989) records mention “Shinji Fukuda of Fukuda Shoten” as a participant in a survey of medicinal plants conducted in Nara prefecture.Fukuda: That’s my grandfather, the sixth-generation head of the Fukuda family. In those days he sold herbal seeds and seedlings to farmers and taught them how to cultivate them. They in turn supplied him with harvested herbs, and he delivered the medicinal plants to pharmaceutical companies which man-ufactured medicines. Those arrange-ments were based on mutual trust and there were no written contracts—a busi-ness practice that continues even today. I am the ninth-generation head, meaning that Fukuda Shoten has been engaged in this business for more than 260 years. My father Shinzo Fukuda (1927-2018) was a pharmacist, as are my brothers. I, the fourth son, succeeded my father as head of the family business. I studied pharmacognosy, took my mas-ter’s degree and became a pharmacist. I worked together with my father in me-dicinal plant cultivation for about twenty years and then obtained my doctorate in pharmacognosy in order to widen the scope of the business. My dissertation was on medicinal plant cultivation meth-ods; ordinarily one would not choose this topic for a doctoral dissertation, be-cause it takes several years to grow herbs and there is a strong likelihood that the plants will fail to grow. There was no professor who could provide advice in the area of herb cultivation, so I drew on the experience and guidance I received from my father on medicinal plant culti-vation.What is medicinal plant cultivation like in Nara prefecture today?Fukuda: Japanese crude drugs are los-ing their competitive edge because of lower-priced imports from China. Quality seeds for domestic production of medicinal plants need to be secured, and an adequate income for herb farm-ers should be guaranteed. Otherwise, no farmer wants to cultivate such plants. They need to be able to obtain good seeds and healthy seedlings, and be pro-vided with technical assistance on how to successfully cultivate such plants. Even so, compared with other medici-nal plant-producing regions, Nara is in a superior position because of its rich historical background and its natural en-vironment, which is well-suited to grow-ing medicinal plants.It all started around the time of Prince Shotoku (574-622), who encouraged the gathering and storage of medicinal plants, when the capital of the imperial court was located in the Asuka area of the Nara Basin referred to as the Yama-to area. Tradition holds that the ruling Empress Suiko (554-628) went on an excursion to pick herbs in the Uda area of Nara in 611. Ancient records indicate that the Empress Komyo (701-760) gift-ed sixty different types of crude drugs to the Todaiji temple in 765. During the Edo period, eighth shogun Yoshi-mune Tokugawa promoted medicinal plant production, and sent officials to find such plants in the Yoshino and Uda areas of Nara. This laid the foundations for medicinal plant cultivation in these areas. Among well-known Yamato tradition-al medicines was “Daranisuke,” made by priests of the Taimadera temple. It is a digestive medicine consisting primar-ily of the dried kihada tree bark (Phel-lodendron amurense). Also very popular during the Edo period was “Sankogan,” produced in the Yamato area using a mixture of herbs and distributed un-der the okigusuri system.1 This system heightened demand for medicinal plants and supported improvements in their cultivation techniques. The successive generations of Tosuke Morino (see pp. 8-9), who amassed wealth by produc-ing kudzu, were also cultivators of me-dicinal plants. These and other histori-cal factors were responsible for a great variety of excellent crude drugs in Nara prefecture, which came to be treasured as Yamato-mono (“Yamato herbs”). In the Edo period, sixty types of medici-nal plants were cultivated in Nara; more than forty types were still grown there until around the end of the 1980s, but numbers have since decreased. To avoid extinction, in around 2010 the Nara pre-fectural government began to promote the cultivation of the following plants as Yamato-mono: toki (Angelica acuti-loba); shakuyaku (Paeonia lactiflora); mishima saiko (Bupleurum falcatum); jio (Rehmannia glutinosa); and kihada (Phellodendron amurense). Today, the number of medicinal plant-cultivating farmers is much smaller, however, and they are faced with many challenges.Efficacy and Revival of Yamato-monoWhat are the notable characteristics of Yamato-mono?Fukuda: In Nara prefecture, there are administrative agencies in charge of the cultivation of herbs and the production of crude drugs, but they still seem to be developing their processes. Since an-cient times, dried roots of toki (Japanese Angelica Root; see p. 4) and shakuyaku from Yamato have been considered to be of high quality with excellent efficacy, and the prefectural government is en-deavoring to demonstrate that superior-ity based on scientific analysis and data.Before analytical technologies were available, people judged the quality of crude drugs by their appearance; for example, Japanese Angelica Root in the form of a horse’s tail was judged to be of high quality, sweet and potent. Technol-ogy today shows little difference in terms of components, whether the root is shaped like a horse tail or not. But when turned into crude drugs, there is an obvious difference in taste between the two species. The efficacy of crude drugs for Kampo is found in the taste. Tasty kampo medicines work well. There is an old Japanese saying that goes, “Good medicine tastes bitter,” but this is not the case as far as Kampo is concerned. When both cultivation and processing are skill-ful, Angelica Root becomes sweet. In the drying process, its maturation produces saccharide. Angelica Root that has turned a nearly transparent amber color is high quality. There is a processing procedure called yumomi that involves blanching the root in hot water and then kneading it into shape, which increases sweet-ness. Although there is no reliable data that clearly shows a correlation between color and sweetness to medical efficacy, I believe color and flavor have a lot to do with the efficacy of a crude drug. Yama-to-mono are known for high efficacy, and in this modern era, it is crucial that scientific data proves the superiority of domestically grown herbal ingredients to foreign ones.How can Yamato-mono be revived?Fukuda: There are a number of essential conditions, the most critical of which is human resources. At the beginning of the 1980s, several universities, herbal wholesalers and pharmaceutical com-panies organized a task force on crude drugs within the Japan Specialty Ag-ricultural Products Association with the purpose of promoting the domestic production of crude drugs. My father, Shinzo Fukuda, took charge of produc-tion technology and succeeded in the long hoped-for cultivation of mishi-masaiko as a specialty product of Ku-mamoto prefecture. My father asserted that quality goods are produced by people, and that training those people is the responsibility of the prefectural government. Together with Kumamoto prefecture, he provided opportunities for locals to train in and experience me-dicinal plant cultivation throughout the prefecture. Creating such opportunities, boosting motivation and training future leaders are all vitally important. Cool hillside areas are well-suited to medicinal plant cultivation, but be-cause of the aging of farmers, studies on flat-land cultivation are under way, which would make it possible to use mechanized farming equipment. Over the last ten years or so, Nara prefecture has engaged in a variety of efforts such as working with university research in-stitutes to analyze the efficacy of medici-nal plants and assist in the building of crude drug databases. It is also crucial to systematically train technicians and pro-fessionals together. It may take time, but such efforts must be sustained in order to revitalize the cradle of Yamato-mono production.How does cultivation of medicinal plants differ from that of agricultural crops?Shakuyaku root is dried for 2 to 3 months. Imparting an Understanding of Kampo MedicineInterview with Kozo Fukuda, Ph.D.Ninth-Generation Head of Fukuda ShotenTechnical skills of the herbal wholesaler