is a pharmaceutical drug marketed in Japan as a treatment for the digestive tract (especially as an antidiarrhoeal), whose main active ingredient is wood-tar creosote.
The name is nominally a registered trademark of based in Suita, Osaka which is still the major market-share holder, but the enforceability of the tradename has been voided by the Supreme Court of Japan, which ruled seirogan to be a common generic name. The ruling only recognizes proprietary use of the bugle logo by Taiko,, pp. 131-; discusses bugle as only recognized trademark; mentions a site that collected 26 different similar looking seirogan brand boxes; on p. 134 is a gallery of 20 different such boxes. but not protection of its characteristic packaging. As a result, dozens of extremely similar packaged drugs are being manufactured and sold in the market.
Medical uses
Seirogan is a general-use medicine, mainly to treat the gastro-intestinal system.
Seirogan has been claimed to be effective in the treatment of the following conditions: Treating and allaying stomach aches, diarrhea, diarrhea due to digestive disorders, food poisoning, vomiting, water contamination (Montezuma's revenge), runny bowels warning of diarrhea, soft stool. Regulating stomach and intestines condition. Pulpitis-caused tooth cavity aches.虫歯の齲窩に直接詰めて使用するが、歯髄が壊死することによって痛みが治まるだけであり、根本的な治療にはならない。また、そのまま放置すると感染が根尖部に広がり、悪化してしまう。(Used by directly stuffing in cavity, but only mitigates pain by causing necrosis of the pulp, and is not treatment that effects fundamental cure. If left otherwise untreated, infection can spread to the roots and worsen the condition) In pre-World War II Japan, Seirogan was believed to combat tuberculosis or aid someone with a weak constitution, and employed as a panacea (cure-all) of sorts.Machida, Shinobu (町田忍), MacArthur and Seirogan (「マッカーサーと正露丸」)
Available forms
+Ingredient list supplied with three Seirogan products Wood-tar creosote (mg) 400 275 400 Catechu powder JP (mg)() 200 0 0 Amur corktree bark powder JP (mg)() 300 99 150 Chinese liquorice root powder JP (mg)() 150 165 250 ) powder (mg) 100 105 100 Japanese belladonna extract JP (mg) () 0 19.8 0 Cinnamon powder JP (mg) (listed as inactive) 49.5 100 gentian root powder JP (mg)() 0 0 100 Inactive ingredients Cinnamon, CMC-Ca, glycerine baking soda, glycerine, wheat starch glycerine, rice starch Manufacturer Taiko Pharmaceutical Izumi Yakuhin Kogyou Matsumoto Pharmaceutical Manufacture Co., Ltd.
Chemistry
Seirogan contains wood-tar creosote (木クレオソート) as its main active ingredient. That ingredient in the West may otherwise go by such names as "wood creosote", "beechwood creosote", or "liquid pitch oil", and should be distinguished from industrial "coal-tar creosote". To emphasize the distinction, wood creosote in Japan is sometimes called by such names as and minor variants thereof. In contemporary European usage, wood-tar creosote has been used for "antiseptic" and "calming" purposes.
A singular randomized controlled trial finds wood creosote about as effective as loperamide in American and Mexican subjects. Compared to loperamide, wood creosote seems to be better at improving cramps but worse at improving diarrhea. Instead its well-known ex vivo antiseptic action, animal studies suggest that wood creosote's antisecretory and antimotility effects play a larger role in its activity against diarrhea.
The wood creosote is blended with two or more recognized in for their supposed antiseptic and other effects, but the additional ingredients used are different among manufacturers (See under § Chemical composition for a sampling of formulas). Kanpō medicine practitioners insist however that "Seirogan is not strictly speaking kanpō medicine", and this point was emphatically printed in a retraction by a certain consumer-watch type book that criticized seirogan but had confused wood creosote with the industrial type. The retraction was in the magazine Shūkan Kin'yōbi issue 8/20/1999, special on Katte wa ikenai; excerpt: Although Seirogan is called a Kampo medicine, although it contains crude drugs that are components of herbal medicine, it is not strictly a Kampo. ... The creosote used in Seirogan is not the Japanese Industrial Standard creosote oil made from coal tar, but the Japanese Pharmacopoeia creosote, which is made by refining and distilling the carbonized product obtained from Puna trees. . ...(From "We respond to responding companies") (See ).
In the classic form, it is a dark brown round pill, but in order to mask its distinctive medicinal odor and bitterness, sugar-coated tablet forms have become available as well.
History
There are several contending theories regarding the origins of the drug, and several names crop up as its inventor.
The Japanese Imperial Army, which experienced considerable setbacks due to unclean water sources during the Sino-Japanese War at the end of the 19th century, was working on solutions to combat infectious diseases. Surgeon-major , an instructor at the Military Medical College, discovered in 1903 that creosote agent was an effective suppressant for the typhoid fever pathogen. Taiko Pharmaceutical claims the Osaka-based medicine merchant developed the a year earlier in 1902 and initiated sales, which business was eventually handed over to Taiko.
The higher echelons of the Army Medical Corps, including writer Mori Ōgai, favored the German view that beriberi, a disease that caused an even heavier death toll than typhoid, was caused by an undiscovered transmittable pathogen (in contrast, British-trained doctors in the navy correctly saw it as a nutritional disorder). Prompted by their misguided view, the army distributed vast quantities of Seirogan (with their proven antiseptic properties) among the troops to be administered daily throughout the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05. In an army medical journal of 1901 there is mention of the pill as , but in the journals of 1904–05 appears the name ., p.21-22 The name Seirogan was widely used as the academic term by army doctors for about a 4-year span.
But this was in the days when drug use as preventive medicine was not a widely embraced concept, and soldiers resisted swallowing this weird-smelling and unfamiliar pill, even when so instructed. The top brass decided to invoke the name of Emperor Meiji, telling the men that taking the pill was "according to the wishes of His Imperial Majesty". This subterfuge reportedly greatly improved the soldiers' compliance towards taking the pill, making them less prone to be forced out of action due to stomach aches or diarrhea. The army doctors were however disappointed to find that the pill did not show any of the desired combative effect towards the (non-existent) beriberi microbe. The army insisted on feeding their men pure white rice to boost morale, but that led to vitamin-deficient diet, so that one in three men serving the Russo-Japanese War were afflicted by beriberi, and 27,800 succumbed to it. Meanwhile, the Japanese navy deduced early on that beriberi was a nutritional disorder, and added breads and (wheat or wheat-rice mixture steam-cooked like rice) to their rations, so that none of their servicemen fell ill with beriberi.
While Seirogan proved powerless against beriberi, the antidiarrheal and toothache-soothing properties of the pill were passed on, in somewhat exaggerated fashion, by repatriated war veterans. Amid the mood of victory in war, Seirogan's name became "the cure-all that defeated Russia" and many drug-makers rushed to manufacture the pill, which became a national medicine unique to Japan.
The reputation for the pill's effectiveness also spread within areas under Japanese control before the end of World War II, and Seirogan is said to be one of the popular items purchased by travelers from Taiwan, Hong Kong, the People's Republic of China, and other Asian countries.
The pill ceased to be part of regular military issue supplies in 1906, but the military continued to keep itself constantly supplied for use. In 2007, it was part of the supply kit issued to the SDF during the UN Mission in Nepal.
After the war with Russia, and again after World War II, administrative guidance was issued against the use of the kanji character as being undesirable from the standpoint of international relations. So in most cases, the written name of the pill was changed to ("right dew pill"). Taiko Pharmaceutical made the change in 1949. But one manufacturer, , still uses the old written form that reads "conquer".
Trademark dispute The Seirogan (正露丸) name was filed for trademark registration by Taiko Pharmaceutical in 1954, but approximately thirty competitors such as objected, leading to a lengthy battle, petitioning the Patent Office, then later litigating in court. The Tokyo District Court rejected Taiko's claim to proprietary use of the Seirogan name, and the Supreme Court of Japan upheld that decision in 1974. The Supreme Court delivered the opinion that the name seirogan had passed into a common noun, so that use of the Seirogan (正露丸) name by any company was valid, not answerable to the claims of this trademark, and did not constitute an infringement of any intellectually property rights thereof. The court also did not recognize Taiko Pharmaceutical's exclusive right to use the distinctive color scheme and graphic design on the packaged box (and sticker label on the pill bottle), with the exception of the product logo depicting a bugle (cf. §Taiko's trademark registration and Izumi's lawsuit to revoke trademark).
As a consequence, there are currently numerous Seirogan products in the market that feature logos other than the bugle but otherwise look remarkably similar: Izumi Yakuhin Kogyou (calabash logo), (triangle and bear logo, nicknamed Yūtan, says the mascot name Yūtan is a pun on ). The retailer/drug store chain and wholesaler also market their own brands.
In 2005, Taiko filed a lawsuit against a competitor, demanding suppression of what it considered copycat merchandise, but again lost the case in court, and the Supreme Court rejected the appeal in 2008 (cf. §Taiko's petition for an injunction against unfair competitive practices).
Taiko's trademark registration and Izumi's lawsuit to revoke trademark In 1946, the leading manufacturer of the pill, had obtained through formal negotiation with Saichi Nakajima the right to continue selling his "Chūyū Seirogan" pill. Accordingly, in 1954, Taiko made a claim for the exclusive use of the "Seirogan" name, and filed for trademark registration.
Other manufacturers of the seirogan-type pill objected to this move, led by , which had developed its own creosote formula, and had supplied the military with its seirogan throughout World War II despite supply shortages. The group petitioned the Patent Office in April 1955 to revoke the trademark. It was not until April 1960, that the Patent Office handed down its decision to maintain the registered trademark. So the group filed a suit in the Tokyo High Court, which in September 1971, ruled that "The seirongan is recognized by the nation's populace as a common name for bowels-regulating agents that use creosote as main ingredient, and [the court hereby] rules to void the Patent Office's decision to make it a proprietary trademark". This ruling was upheld by the Supreme Court of Japan, thus finalizing the decision in March 1974.