Gypsum is a crude mineral drug used in the\nformulas of Japanese kampo medicine and traditional\nChinese medicine. The present study aimed to evaluate the\nanti-allergic effect of byakkokakeishito extract (BKT),\nwhich consists of gypsum (natural hydrous calcium sulfate),\nAnemarrhena Rhizome (rhizome of Anemarrhena\nasphodeloides), Cinnamon Bark (bark of trunk of Cinnamomum\ncassia), Oriza Seed (seed of Oryza sativa), and\nGlycyrrhiza (root and stolon of Glycyrrhiza uralensis), and\nto clarify the role of gypsum in the formula. We prepared\nBKT by boiling a mixture of various quantities of gypsum\nand fixed amounts of the other four crude drugs in water.\nWe evaluated the anti-allergic activity of the formulations\nusing three different murine models of allergy: contact\ndermatitis induced by painting hapten onto skin; allergic\ndermatitis-like symptoms induced by cutaneous injection\nof mite-antigen; and skin passive cutaneous anaphylaxis\n(PCA) reaction using ovalbumin as antigen. The calcium\ncontent in the various BKT samples was dose-dependently\nincreased up to 60 g/day of human dosage. BKT significantly\nsuppressed the allergic symptoms in the three different\nexperimental models. The effect of BKT was\naugmented by increasing the gypsum dosage only in the\nPCA reaction model. The extract prepared from a mixture\nof Anemarrhena Rhizome and gypsum exhibited an effect\ncomparable to that of BKT. BKT exhibits an anti-allergic\neffect in several animal models, which may provide\nexperimental evidence for the clinical use of BKT in\nallergic diseases. Gypsum may augment the anti-allergic\nactivity of BKT, presumably through increasing intestinal\nabsorption of Anemarrhena Rhizome-derived active\nconstituents.
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