Abstract
Earthworms, also known as Dilong, have been widely used in traditional Chinese medicine for thousands of years. The medicinal applications of earthworms in various remedies included blood stagnation removal, wound healing, epilepsy, asthma, hemiplegia, and rheumatism. Recently, evidence-based research has examined the therapeutic effects of earthworm and the current state of knowledge that earthworms have and the impact on and response to their environment. In this chapter, we discuss several observations: neurobiological mechanisms, with particular attention to nerve regeneration induced by earthworms, pharmacological functions, and impact on ecological systems.
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Acknowledgment
This study is supported in part by Taiwan Department of Health Clinical Trial and Research Center of Excellence (DOH99-TD-B-111-004).
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Chang, YM., Chi, WY., Cooper, E.L., Kuo, WW., Huang, CY. (2011). Earthworms: A Potent Herbal Target for TCM (CAM) Research. In: Karaca, A. (eds) Biology of Earthworms. Soil Biology, vol 24. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-14636-7_15
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-14636-7_15
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