Thermal properties of direct and indirect moxibustion.

Moxibustion therapy chiefly utilizes heat generated by the combustion of moxa. Therefore, understanding the thermal properties of moxibustion is essential when studying the mechanisms involved in moxibustion therapy. Therefore, we measured temperatures of direct and indirect moxibustion. For indirect moxibustion, moxibustion on garlic was used. To determine the influence of the environment on moxibustion, we applied airflow of 0.0-0.8 m/s. An increase in the airflow caused a concomitant increase in the maximum temperature of direct moxibustion, from 160 to 300 degrees C and the time duration was reduced by half. However, the maximum temperature of indirect moxibustion demonstrated the opposite effect, with the temperature decreasing from 45 to 40 degrees C. This is attributed to the upstream airflow, which indicates the importance of the air inside moxa. For indirect moxibustion using garlic slices of different thicknesses, we found the optimum condition for the buffer layer of a garlic slice. The maximum number of consecutive moxibustions using one garlic slice was three. These results are consistent with traditional methods. This observation illustrates that the importance of garlic slices in modulating the combustion heat and proper thermal stimulus to the patient. Copyright 2009 Korean Pharmacopuncture Institute. Published by .. All rights reserved.