The Evaluation of Therapeutic Efficacy of Hachimi-jio-gan (traditional Chinese Medicine) to Rat Galactosemic Cataract

Hachimi-jio-gan (Rehmannia Eight Formula, pa-wei-ti-huang-wan or Bawei dihuang wan) is one of traditional Chinese medicines which has been used for treating various senile disease for a few hundred years. This drug was evaluated for its therapeutic efficacy to rat galactosemic cataract from the suppressive rate of variance of some biochemical parameters, whose variation with cataractogenesis or the advance of cataract have been reported already. The dose of 500mg of Hachimi-jio-gan/day/200g of rat body weight suppressed significantly the variations of hydration rate, Na/K ratios, and calcium ion level in the lens with the advance of galactosemic cataract, especially when the drug was administered by the pre- or concurrent-administration before or with 30% of galactose diet respectively. This drug also could delay the progressive rate of lens opacification. However, the drug had no effect to suppress the galactitol accumulation in the lens. From these results, we presume that a drug action of Hachimi-jio-gan may control the balance of sodium, potassium and calcium ions which are important in relation to the maintenance of lens transparency. Then, we realized, that this drug may have a prophylactic efficacy to diabetic cataract, though a more detail study should be needed to apply this drug to human cataract disease.