[Studies on the medicinal plants in the "Sambutsu-cho" of Merayama, belonging to Kuma province, Higo].

The Sambutsu-cho, a list of the natural products, of Merayama, belonging to Kuma Province, Higo was dedicated to the Tokugawa shogunate ca. 1735. This book did not contain so many names, but there were various names of plants, animals and minerals. In the plant kingdom, there were the names of the wild and cultivated plants, such as cereals, vegetables, fruits, trees, bamboos, herbs and mushrooms. The part on trees had 61 names and the other part, on herbs, had 76 names. In this report, I studied the species of the trees and herbs which were listed by their local and standard names. I identified them and found 56 and 63 species, respectively. Among the 56 species of trees, 39 were medicinal plants. Also, 48 medicinal plants were found among the 63 species of herbs. The ratio of medicinal plants to trees and herbs was 70 and 76%. This Sambutsu-cho contained color illustrations of the herbs, trees, animals, birds and insects. These pictures were not always accurate but very much useful to identify the local names in the Edo-period to match them with their scientific names. One of the most interesting samples was "Miso-ushinai." This was identified as Lyonia ovalifolia var. elliptica, Ericaceae.