Clinically, it has been recognized that moxibustion with artemisia stimulates the internal parts of the body without a burn on the skin. Recently, Matsuyama et al. reported that the maximun temperature of moxibustion varied with every change of size, mass, hardness, quality, and humidity of moxa. The purpose of this study was to investigate experimentally the temperature-changes in vivo with moxibustion by using laboratory animals.
Male mice of the C57BL/6CrSlc strain (30 weeks old) and chromel-alumel thermocouples (0.32mm diam. and 0.5Ω electric resistance) were used. Following autoclave sterilization, the chromel-alumel thermocouples were surgically set in the subcutaneous and the muscle layers of the mice. Three weeks later, the temperature-changes in the mice with 5mg of Ibuki-moxa were registered by a calibrated recorder.
As illustrated in Fig. 2, maximum temperature diminished in the following order; on the skin (A), in the subcutaneous layer (B), and in the muscle layer (C). And the time occupied on the temperature restoration in the body became longer than that on the skin. As illustrated in Fig. 3, a series of three moxa-cauterizations induced the maximum temperatures to diminish on the skin (A), and to augment in the subcutaneous (B) and muscle layer (C). The former is caused by the barriers of previous moxa tar, sap, and ash to the heat conduction, while the latter is due to the accumulation of prior moxibustion heat. These results indicate that a series of three moxibustions enhances the stimulation not to the shallow parts but to the deep parts of the body. However, it should be made to clarify whether this conclusion holds good for clinical cases.

Indirect moxibustion has been found to have the effects of thermal stimulation and pharmacological effects as we analyzed the intercalated substance with thin layer chromatography, 6-gingeol from zingiberis Rhizoma and allicin from Allis Bulbus were detected.
It is suggested that pharmacological effects of intercalated substance were significant in indirect moxibustion.

In previous report, we investigated temperature-changes in vivo with diathermic moxibustions (scarring moxibustions), and showed that the temperature in the subcutaneous layer rised over 50°C. In present study, it was recognized that indirect moxibustions (ginger or garlic moxibustions) kept longer high-temperature than those of diathermic moxibustions. Therefore, it is possible that indirect moxibustions, although it seemed to be weakly stimulation, have stronger stimulation than diathermic moxibustions. In addition, the temperature-changes in vivo with indirect moxibustion seemed to be influenced by water contents of materials for indirect moxibustion and organism skin.

In present study, the moxa and moxibustion-products inhibited production of superoxide.
These results suggested that moxa and moxibustion-products had a scavenger like effects on superoxide.

In the previous paper, we reported that the indirect moxibustions (ginger- or garlic-moxibustions) kept high-temperature rather than those of the diathermic moxibustions. However, the effects of the indirect moxibustions include not only thermal stimulations but also medicinal actions of the materials. In this study, we found the effects of radical scavenger in ginger and garlic with ESR spin trapping technique. This suggested that ginger- or garlic-moxibustions were available to treatment of disease caused by the radicals.

In previous report, we showed that moxa inhibit generation of superoxide as one of active oxygen species.
In present study, we investigated on radical scavenging effects of various moxas with DPPH-method.
These results showed that various moxas have radical scavenging effects and the difference of radical scavenging activities. The difference of activities should be due to the difference of grade of moxas.