Traditional Chinese medicine has been used for thousands of years by a large population. It is currently still serving many of the health needs of the Chinese people; and still enjoying their confi dence it is practised in China in parallel with modern Western medical treatment. In addition to scientific organisations dedi cated to modern Western medicine, e. g. the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and various medical schools, a series of parallel institutions have been established in China to promote traditional Chinese medicine, such as the Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine and training institutions. Almost all hospitals in China have a department of traditional medicine. Furthermore, a large number of scientific journals are dedicated to traditional Chinese medicine, covering both experimental and clinical investigations. Medicinal materials constitute a key topic in the treatment of disease according to traditional Chinese medicine. The Chinese Pharmacopoeia (1985 edition) is therefore divided into two sepa rate volumes, Volume I containing traditional Chinese medicinal materials and preparations and Volume II containing pharmaceu tics of Western medicine. The oldest Chinese review of medicinal materials, Shennong Bencao Jing (100-200 A. D. ), covered 365 herbal drugs. The clas sic compilation in this field, Bencao Gangmu (Compendium of Materia Medica), was published in 1578 by Li Shi-zhen and recorded as many as 1898 crude drugs of plant, animal and min eral origin.

The global popularity of herbal supplements and the promise they hold in treating various disease states has caused an unprecedented interest in understanding the molecular basis of the biological activity of traditional remedies. Herbal Medicine: Biomolecular and Clinical Aspects focuses on presenting current scientific evidence of biomolecular ef

Synergizing herbal medicine with clinical science, this two-volume guide combines the medicinal applications of a comprehensive range of herbs from traditional Chinese medicine with modern day scientific information. In a rapid access, A-Z format, this ready reference contains more than 300 chemical structures of active ingredients, supported by chemical, pharmacological and toxicological data, and backed by some 8,000 literature citations. With its listing of the complete Materia Medica of plant origin from the Chinese Pharmacopoeia, this work is highly relevant to experimental practitioners in the medicinal and pharmaceutical fields and the only one to provide such a wealth of chemical data.

This is the first botanically authoritative and practical illustrated identification guide to Chinese medicinal plants and drugs and their substitutes. It offers authoritative guidance on the identification of the herbal drugs themselves, and the plants from which they are sourced. Over the past 15 years, the authors have been collecting plant specimens throughout China, using verified species to create typical TCM reference drugs, prepared according to traditional methods. The herbal drugs included in this book are officially recognised from the Chinese materia medica (as defined in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia) and their selection has been based on those popular in international trade, as well as those recognised by the European Herbal and Traditional Medicine Practitioners Association, and those that are easily confused, substituted or adulterated with other plants.

There has been a growing interest in the use of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) both in China and globally. In China, increased health care costs are associated with the widespread use of Western drugs and their related side-effects. Currently two-thirds of the drugs used in China are of Western origin while the other third is TCM. Health care costs can be more effectively controlled by wider use of TCM. Such trends provide an opportunity to develop a pharmaceutical industry based on herbal products for both the Chinese and global markets. Internationally, the World Health Organization has noted that a majority of the populations of developing countries mainly relies on traditional herbal formulations. Therefore, standardized and effective herbal medicines can play an important role in health care. All of this coincides with the growing use of herbal medicines in industrialized countries. To date, very little scientifically sound research on TCM has been published in English. This book is meant to provide the English-speaking world with a collection of papers on this important subject, covering such topics as research and development, clinical studies, and commercialization.