As many natural medicines absorb water at boiling, yields of the decoctions are affected by absorbed water. Therefore, we examined the quantity of imbibition of each crude drug at boiling. We used 75 kinds of crude drugs. After boiling 600ml of water, each natural medicine was boiled for 70 minutes. The medicine was left for 60 minutes, and then boiled again for 20 minutes. The quantity of imbibition of each natural medicine was measured at 10, 20, 30, 40, 60, 130, and 150 minutes. The maximum data among the quantity of imbibition at each point was labeled “maximum quantity of imbibition.” With regard to the maximum quantity of imbibition in natural medicines of plant origin, the range was from a maximum of 69.10g in Chrisanthemi Flos to a minimum of 3.26g in Persicae Semen. The average maximum quantity of imbibition was 22.51±13.00g, and there were large differences among each of the natural medicines. The quantity of imbibition at 10 minutes or 20 minutes was above 80% of each maximum quantity of imbibition on many crude drugs, but that gradually increased over the time course for some crude drugs.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Left-sided diverticulitis is increasing in Japan, and many studies report that left-sided diverticulitis is more likely to be severe. Therefore, it is important to identify the features and risk factors for left-sided diverticulitis. We hypothesized that left-sided diverticulitis in Japan is related to obesity and conducted a study of the features and risk factors for this disorder in Japan. METHODS: Right-sided diverticulitis and left-sided diverticulitis patients (total of 215) were compared with respect to background, particularly obesity-related factors to identify risk factors for diverticulitis. RESULTS: There were 166 (77.2%) right-sided diverticulitis patients and 49 (22.8%) left-sided diverticulitis patients. The proportions of obese patients (body mass index > or =25 kg/m2, p=0.0349), viscerally obese patients (visceral fat area > or =100 cm2, p=0.0019), patients of mean age (p=0.0003), and elderly patients (age > or =65 years, p=0.0177) were significantly higher in the left-sided-diverticulitis group than in the right-sided-diverticulitis group. The proportion of viscerally obese patients was significantly higher in the left-sided-diverticulitis group than in the left-sided-diverticulosis group (p=0.0390). CONCLUSIONS: This study showed that obesity, particularly visceral obesity, was a risk factor for left-sided diverticulitis in Japan.
Aged ; Diverticulitis ; Humans ; Japan ; Obesity ; Obesity, Abdominal ; Retrospective Studies ; Risk Factors