Both Muxiang and Chuanmuxiang are traditional Chinese medicines. Due to their similar names, they are often confused by people. However, there are differences between the two in terms of appearance and usage. Let's summarize the differences between Muxiang and Chuanmuxiang below.
1. Distinguishing Appearance
[Muxiang]
The root is cylindrical or slightly cylindrical, 5-15cm long and 0.5-5.5cm in diameter. The surface is yellowish-brown, gray-brown, or brownish-brown. The cork is mostly removed, with clear longitudinal grooves and lateral root marks, and sometimes a reticular texture can be seen. The texture is hard and difficult to break, with a slightly flat cross-section, grayish-yellow, gray-brown, or brownish-brown, with small deep brown oil chambers scattered, forming a ring of brown layers, and having a radial texture. The central part of the old root is mostly decayed.
[Chuanmuxiang]
The root is cylindrical or semi-cylindrical with longitudinal grooves, slightly curved, 10-30cm long and 1-3cm in diameter. The surface is yellowish-brown or brownish-brown, with longitudinal wrinkles. The peeled off skin can be seen with silk gourd-like fine veins; the root head occasionally has a black sticky gelatinous substance, commonly known as "oil head". It is light in weight, hard and brittle, easy to break, and the cross-section is yellowish-white or yellow, with deep yellow sparse oil spots and cracks. The wood has a wide and radial texture; some centers are decayed.
2. Efficacy and Usage
[Muxiang]
Efficacy: It has the effects of promoting qi circulation, relieving pain, invigorating the spleen, and improving digestion. It is mainly used for epigastric distention and pain, belching, vomiting and diarrhea, recurring dysentery, loss of consciousness, sudden deafness, snake and insect bites, and toothache. It is used for chest and epigastric distention, recurring diarrhea, indigestion, and loss of appetite.
Usage: Take it internally as a decoction, 1.5-9g; for pills and powders, reduce the dosage by half. Be cautious when used by people with deficient yin and insufficient body fluids.
[Chuanmuxiang]
Efficacy: It has the effects of promoting qi circulation and relieving pain. It is used for epigastric distention and pain, intestinal rumbling and diarrhea, recurring urgency, discomfort in the rib area, and liver and gallbladder pain.
Usage: Take it internally as a decoction, 3-9g.
3. Chemical Composition
[Muxiang]
The root contains volatile oil 0.3%-3%, costuslactone 0.05%, and inulin 18%. The main components in the oil are costuslactone, dinydrocostus-lactone, α-cost01, α-costic acid, saussurea lactone, denydcrostus lactone, iso-alantolactone, as well as aplotaxene, α-costene, β-costene, α-ionone, and β-ionone, and it also contains about 20 kinds of amino acids.
[Chuanmuxiang]
The root contains volatile oil and inulin. The volatile oil contains mokkolactone, and the separation can obtain alantolactone.
4. Odor Identification
[Muxiang]
The odor is strong and distinctive, with a bitter and pungent taste. The best quality is solid, evenly shaped, with strong fragrance and high oil content.
[Chuanmuxiang]
The odor is slightly fragrant and the taste is bitter. It sticks to the teeth when chewed.
5. Physical and Chemical Identification
[Muxiang]
Take 0.5g of the powder, add 10mL of chloroform, ultrasonicate for 30 minutes, filter, and use the filtrate as the test solution. Take dehydrocostus lactone and costus camphor lactone reference substances, respectively, dissolve them in chloroform to make a solution containing 0.5mg per 1mL, as the reference solution. Perform thin-layer chromatography test (Appendix ⅥB), take 5μL of the test solution and reference solution, respectively, spot them on the same silica gel G plate with carboxymethylcellulose sodium as the binder, use chloroform and cyclohexane (5:1) as the developing agent, develop, take out, air dry, spray with 1% vanillin sulfuric acid solution, and heat until the spots show clear coloration. In the test solution chromatogram, spots of the same color appear at the corresponding positions as in the reference solution chromatogram.
[Chuanmuxiang]
Take 2g of the powder, add 20mL of ether, ultrasonicate for 20 minutes, filter, evaporate the filtrate, dissolve the residue with 1mL of methanol, and use it as the test solution. Take Chuanmuxiang reference herb, use the same method to make the reference herb solution. Perform thin-layer chromatography test (Appendix ⅥB), take 5μL of the two solutions mentioned above, respectively, spot them on the same silica gel G plate, use toluene and ethyl acetate (19:1) as the developing agent, develop, take out, air dry, spray with 5% vanillin sulfuric acid solution, and heat until the spots show clear coloration. In the test solution chromatogram, spots of the same color appear at the corresponding positions as in the reference herb chromatogram.
