Moxibustion

Moxibustion () is a traditional Chinese medicine therapy which consists of burning dried mugwort (wikt:moxa) on particular points on the body. It plays an important role in the traditional medical systems of China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and Mongolia. Suppliers usually age the mugwort and grind it up to a fluff; practitioners burn the fluff or process it further into a cigar-shaped stick. They can use it indirectly, with acupuncture needles, or burn it on the patient's skin. Moxibustion is promoted as a treatment for a wide variety of conditions, but its use is not backed by good evidence and it carries a risk of adverse effects. The first Western remarks on moxibustion can be found in letters and reports written by Portuguese missionaries in 16th-century Japan. They called it botão de fogo (), a term originally used for round-headed Western cautery irons. Hermann Buschoff, who published the first Western book on this matter in 1674 (English edition 1676), used the Japanese pronunciation mogusa. As the u is not very strongly enunciated, he spelled it "Moxa". Later authors blended "Moxa" with the Latin word combustio ("burning"). The name of the herb Artemisia (mugwort) species used to produce Moxa is called ài or àicǎo (艾, 艾草) in Chinese and yomogi (蓬) in Japan. The Chinese names for moxibustion are jiǔ ( 灸) or jiǔshù ( 灸術); the Japanese use the same characters and pronounce them as kyū and kyūjutsu. In Korean the reading is tteum (뜸). Korean folklore attributes the development of moxibustion to the legendary emperor Dangun. Tteum (moxibustion).jpg|a Korean set of ''tteum'' Tteum (moxibustion) 2.jpg|application of ''tteum'' on the back of a hand Moxa-samples-from-Japan.jpg|Samples of Japanese Moxa. Left to right: processed mugwort (1st stage); processed mugwort (2nd stage); coarse Moxa for indirect moxibustion; usual quality for indirect and direct moxibustion; superior quality for direct moxibustion. Ibuki moxa set.jpg|Traditional moxibustion set from [[Maibara, Shiga|Maibara]] (Japan) Stick-on-moxa-rolls-japan.