Heibei Okamura (1852–1934) produced Japan's finest "Okamura's" chaulmoogra oil,, between about 1892 and 1944 at

Sakai is a city located in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. It has been one of the largest and most important seaports of Japan since the medieval era. Sakai is known for its keyhole-shaped burial mounds, or kofun, which date from the fifth century and incl ...

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2. ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. Chaulmoogra oil, which is taken from capsular fruits of

Hydnocarpus ''Hydnocarpus'' is a genus of medium to large trees in the Family Achariaceae; the genus was previously placed in the now defunct family Flacourtiaceae. Species have been recorded from Indochina, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. Charact ...

genus trees of

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and the

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, had been the only one remedy in wide use before

Guy Henry Faget Guy Henry Faget (1891–1947) was an American medical doctor who revolutionalized the treatment of leprosy, by demonstrating the efficacy of promin, as described in a paper published in 1943. Promin is a sulfone compound, synthesized by Feldman an ...

proved the efficacy of

promin Promin, or sodium glucosulfone is a sulfone drug that was investigated for the treatment of malaria, tuberculosis and leprosy. It is broken down in the body to dapsone, which is the therapeutic form. History The first synthesis of Promin is some ...

in 1943 Promin started the era of sulfon chemicals and revolutionalized the treatment of leprosy. Okamura was also known for caring for more than 1,000 leprosy patients between 1888 and 1901 in his house.

Life

Heibei Okamura was born in

in 1852, and his father went into the Okamura family. He married a girl of the Okamura family named Koteru. He was known in his city,

for being an amateur sumo wrestler, a tall height of 188 cm and for being a Japanese sword master. In 1888, he happened to save a miserable person with leprosy; he gave the patient a wash in a bathtub. Between 1888 and 1901, he cared for more than 1,000 leprosy patients in his house. He studied Chinese medicine and began to produce chaulmoogra oil probably in 1892, which was the year of the first advertisement. In 1944, the import of the materials of the oil discontinued, and the chaulmoogra oil age came to an end.

Clove oil

The Okamura family had the technique of oil production, and since 1672, clove oil had been produced in the Okamura family. Clove oil had a variety of uses from Chinese medicine to the keeping of Japanese swords in good condition. Since the

Meiji Restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored practical imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Although there were ...

, the popularity of clove oil decreased, and the production of chaulmoogra oil was a prospective venture.

Chaulmoogra oil

In a medical journal published in 1892, the first advertisement of Okamura's chaulmoogra oil was found. It was registered in Japanese Pharmacopoeia. Chaulmoogra oil was produced later by Ministry of Welfare, but the quality of the oil was inferior to Okamura's oil. The efficacy of chaulmoogra oil for leprosy was studied in a special lecture in 1940 by

Yutaka Kamikawa was a Japanese physician, who treated leprosy patients and studied leprosy. He worked at Kikuchi Keifuen Sanatorium and Losheng Sanatorium in Taiwan, and Tohoku Shinseien Sanatorium in Japan and studied chaulmoogra oil. Life He was born in Hiro ...

; it differed depending on sanatoriums from 30% to 80% and there were many recurrences.The present status of treatment of leprosy(1940) Kamikawa Y, Repura, 11, 1-30. However, before promin was discovered in 1943 by

, chaulmoogra oil had been the only remedy known to be effective in this disease.

References

*Chaulmoogra oil and Heibei Okamura(1986) Sakuma H. Nihon Iji Shimpo 3239 *治らい剤「大風子油」と十九世瑞碩岡村平兵衛(1986)　佐久間温巳、日本医事新報　3239号　 *A visit to Okamura family (1937) Miyagawa H. Aisei Vol.6, Num. 7. *泉州堺岡村家訪問記(1937) 宮川量　「愛生」第6巻7号

Footnotes

Leprosy nurses and caregivers 1852 births 1934 deaths Japanese leprologists People from Osaka {{Japan-bio-stub