ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Pharmacol.
Sec. Ethnopharmacology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphar.2025.1595646
A Quantitative Comparative Analysis of the Four Medical Tantras of Tibetan Medicine and the Aṣṭāṅga Hṛdaya Saṃhitā of Ayurveda: A Focus on Diet, Medicinal Materials, and Preparations
Provisionally accepted- 1Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu, China
- 2Southwest Minzu University, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China
- 3Tibet University of Tibetan Medicine, Lhasa, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Aim of the study: This study aims to reveal and compare the use of diets, medicinal materials, and preparations as therapeutic means in the Four Medical Tantras and the Aṣṭāṅga Hṛdaya Saṃhitā, and to explore their historical exchanges between these two traditional medical systems. Materials and methods: ① Data mining: Relevant information on diets, medicinal materials, and preparations was extracted from the Four Medical Tantras and the Aṣṭāṅga Hṛdaya Saṃhitā, and entered into a Microsoft Excel 2010 table to establish the datasets, respectively. ② Statistical analysis: IBM SPSS Statistics 27.0, SPSS Modeler 18.0, and Gephi 0.9.2 were used to analyze the contents of diets, medicinal materials, and preparations, such as frequency, association rules, and complex networks. ③ Comparative study: The Mann-Whitney test, a non-parametric method, and the intuitive comparison method were used to analyze the similarities and differences in terms of therapeutic means of diets, medicinal materials, and preparations documented in the Four Medical Tantras and the Aṣṭāṅga Hṛdaya Saṃhitā. Results: ① Foods: The Four Medical Tantras document 153 kinds, categorized into five major types, mainly meat. The Aṣṭāṅga Hṛdaya Saṃhitā documents 392 types, categorized into six major types, mainly vegetables. There are 49 shared food types between the two texts. ② Drinks: The Four Medical Tantras document 65 kinds, categorized into three major types. The Aṣṭāṅga Hṛdaya Saṃhitā documents 81 kinds, categorized into five major types (including more sugar cane- and sesame oil-based types), and includes South Asian specialty drinks such as yellow cow urine, camel urine, and elephant urine. Among them, 18 drink types are shared. ③ Medicinal materials: The Four Medical Tantras document 1,115 species, mainly animal-based medicines, with 388 recorded efficacies classified into 17 disease types. The Aṣṭāṅga Hṛdaya Saṃhitā documents 762 species, mainly plant-based, with 40 recorded efficacies classified into 30 disease types. Among them, 227 medicinal materials are shared, with 21 overlapping recorded efficacies. ④ Preparations: The Four Medical Tantras document 2,678 types, with combinations following the principle of “coolness in warmth, and warmth in coolness,” reflecting Tibetan medical characteristics.
Keywords: Tibetan medicine, Four Medical Tantras, Ayurveda, Aṣṭāṅga Hṛdaya Saṃhitā, foods, drinks, Medicinal materials, Preparations 78 M. moschiferus
Received: 24 Mar 2025; Accepted: 04 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Garang, Zhaxi, Suonan, Mejia, Luo, Bai, Lizhen, Zhang, Nhamdriel, Jiangyong, Zeweng, Mi and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Silang Jiangyong, Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu, China
Yongzhong Zeweng, Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu, China
Ma Mi, Tibet University of Tibetan Medicine, Lhasa, China
Zhang Wang, Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.