Traditional Chinese medicines derived from the human body estimated without reference to their Chinese context." (Cooper & Sivin 1973: 203). They selected 8 widely used human drugs from the 37 listed in "Bencao gangmu" chapter 52: human hair, nails, teeth, milk, blood, semen, saliva, and bone. For each substance, Cooper and Sivin first analyzed the "Bencao gangmu" information about drug preparation and use, and then commented on the known chemical composition of the human drug and other ingredients in the prescriptions. Cooper & Sivin (1973: 259-60, Table 8.1) applied the criteria of clinical pharmacology to analyze the possible medicinal value of the "Bencao gangmu" pharmacopeia's human drug prescriptions
Composition of the human body g in men, ~2.3 g in women Of the 94 naturally occurring chemical elements, 60 are listed in the table above. Of the remaining 34, it is not known how many occur in the human body. Most of the elements needed for life are relatively common in the Earth's crust. Aluminium, the third most common element in the Earth's crust (after oxygen and silicon), serves no function in living cells, but is harmful in large amounts. Transferrins can bind aluminium. The composition of the human body is expressed in terms of chemicals: The composition of the human body can be