Musk and Saffron: Those Years of the Palace Fighter

The TV screen has set off a wave of palace fights, and the harem of the theater is intriguing. Musk and saffron are the secretive secrets of the stars, and the frequency is quite high and impressive. They are aborted, but they are lifeless and infertile. At the same time, people have doubts: Are these Gongda killers really so lethal? Let us first understand what the musk and saffron are.

In the TV series “Biography”, the first pregnancy in the first episode of abortion was aborted. Because Hua Tuo was not able to punish him, he smelled the joyful fragrance of musk, and he had a miscarriage after half an hour. The picture is from a video screenshot.

What is the saffron saffron?

The natural musk is actually the secretion of the mammalian scorpion (such as the forest carp, the horse owl, the original cockroach), taken from the gland of the mature male individual between the navel and the genitals. Musk is the means used by these animals to attract the opposite sex, while ancient China and ancient Indians collected them for use as medicines. They were almost a panacea, and they were used as spices after being introduced into Europe.

Collecting musk needs to kill the animal, and the yield is very low, which not only causes the musk to be more expensive than the gold, but more importantly, it greatly threatens the survival of the moth. In 1906, humans made an important breakthrough in the study of the composition of natural musk, and separated the main component of musk and named it muscone (3-methylcyclopentadecanone). Although animal musk was still used in large quantities in the late 19th century, natural musk began to be replaced by synthetic musk. To this day, musk is almost always synthetic.

(Left) Producer of Musk - the original musk deer; (middle) Musk of the shell, that is, the gland directly cut off; (Right) cut the musk kernel obtained from the musk of the shell, dry secretions. Figure /;;


Crocus sativus is a genus of the genus Iris. About 3,500 years ago, people began planting saffron as a spice, medicine and food. The only thing used to make spices and medicines is the stigma of saffron (the uppermost part of the pistil). Collecting 1 gram of stigma requires about 150 flowers and is therefore expensive.

Modern scientific analysis shows that the stigma of saffron is rich in carotenoids, such as nectarine, which gives golden yellow to the stigma, crocetin, which is a derivative of crocin, and bitter nectar, which gives bitterness to saffron, and the smell of flowers. It is derived from geranyl aldehyde. Among them, crocin and crocetin are considered to be the main active ingredients of saffron medicinal.

(Left) Saffron saffron saffron; (right) spice and saffron stigma, which is the uppermost part of the pistil. Figure /

Musk and saffron have many things in common, such as rare sources and high prices, all of which are important spices. In addition, there are records on their folk herbal medicines about their abortion.

What is the utility of the Palace Fighter?

Can the aroma of musk and the decoction of saffron really cause abortion? In the period of the flourishing development of modern medicine and modern biophysiology, some scientists have become interested in the statements recorded in this traditional medical book.

In the early 1980s, Zhang Chongli of the Chinese Academy of Sciences did some experiments on musk ketone, the main component of musk [1]. He injected 20 mg of musk ketone or the same volume of control solvent into the female mice that had been successfully mated every day. It was found that musk ketone reduced the proportion of pregnant mice from 63% to 83% in the control group to 17 in the musk ketone group. Progesterone can prevent this anti-pregnancy effect of musk ketone. According to the researchers, it is speculated that musk ketone may achieve anti-pregnancy effects by inhibiting progesterone levels. However, the artificial musk ketone with 3-methylcyclopentenone was used in this study, which is slightly different from the 3-m-cyclopentadecanone, the main component of natural musk; scientists then used synthetic 3 – Methylcyclopentadecanone The same experiment was conducted and it was found that 3-methylcyclopentadecanone did not have such an anti-pregnancy effect. The results of such experiments are still unable to determine whether natural musk has anti-pregnancy effects.

Later in 1987, a Japanese research team also studied the pharmacological properties of musk [2]. This time, scientists used different concentrations of natural musk solution to soak the isolated uterine smooth muscle. It was found that when the concentration of the musk solution was 0.1 mg/ml, it promoted the contraction of smooth muscle, but when the concentration of the solution rose to 1 At mg/ml, contraction of uterine smooth muscle is inhibited. From the results of this study, it is difficult to predict the outcome by simply talking about the effect of musk on the uterus.

From the study of the effects of a few musk on pregnancy, we can see that the effects of different structures of musk ketone on animal pregnancy may vary greatly, and the effect of natural musk on uterine contraction may vary greatly with concentration. Most importantly, musk is mainly used as a cosmetic raw material or as a weapon of the palace, mainly through sniffing, and in the above research, it is exerted by subcutaneous injection and direct soaking of muscle tissue in the musk solution. This large difference in the mode of administration may result in significant differences in absorbed doses and medication outcomes.

The saffron toxicity is very low, and the oral lethal dose is 20.7 grams per kilogram of body weight, which is much higher than the low toxicity standard of Chinese acute poisoning (oral) grading standard (half lethal dose 0.5 kg per kilogram of body weight) [3]. In the 1960s, Zhang Peijun and others used 20% saffron decoction to soak the uterus or infiltrate into the uterus. It was found that the decoction had certain excitatory effects on the uterus in both cases [4]. However, this study also faces the same problem as several related studies of musk, that is, the efficacy of oral decoction and uterus directly immersed in decoction may be quite different.

The above research can only be said to be a temptation and suggestion in the research direction. There is not enough evidence to show that the aroma of musk and the decoction of saffron do cause miscarriage.

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