Chinese Medicinal Plants · Plant Volume

Author: Zheng Hanchen
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2003-12-01
Features: Among the numerous medicinal plants in China, many are edible and can be used as ingredients for medicinal diets, health-preserving foods and beverages, seasonings, flavor enhancers, and edible pigments. Conversely, the vast majority of edible plants also possess medicinal or health benefits. This book introduces these edible-medicinal plants to readers in a (illustrated) format, covering their scientific names, common names, morphology, habitats and distributions, chemical compositions, edible values, medicinal values, and recipes. The primary readership includes food, plant, and traditional Chinese medicine professionals, students and faculty in universities and colleges majoring in food, pharmacy, and traditional Chinese medicine, as well as general enthusiasts for plants, traditional Chinese medicine, and gourmet culture. The book includes 271 species of edible-medicinal plants. Each plant is accompanied by its internationally recognized Latin name and family name, along with 588 color photographs of the original plants and edible-medicinal parts to aid in identification. The book is organized in taxonomic order from lower to higher plants, with angiosperms arranged according to the long-standing Engler classification system widely used by Chinese botanists, facilitating readers in cross-referencing relevant plant (monographs) and comparing closely related species when necessary. Additionally, readers can search for plant names in Chinese, Latin, and English in the appendix. All measurements, counts, and percentages are expressed in Arabic numerals, while units of measurement follow internationally accepted symbols, such as: m (meters), cm (centimeters), mm (millimeters), g (grams), mg (milligrams), μg (micrograms), ml (milliliters), etc. Many plants have numerous common names, and this book only includes the most commonly used ones (up to five). If a Latin name has common synonyms, they are noted in square brackets after the primary name. Habitat and distribution refer to the living environments and natural ranges of plants in their wild state, which helps in collection and creating conditions for cultivation. The recipes included in the book are sourced from various medical and pharmaceutical literature and are for reference only; medical treatment must follow professional advice. Most of the photographs in the book were taken by the authors, except for the ecological photographs of sweet orange, Gynostemma pentaphyllum, and Panax notoginseng, which were reproduced from Illustrated Catalogue of Chinese Medicinal Plants. The book primarily features commonly or frequently used edible-medicinal plants, along with some species and animals that meet the inclusion criteria but whose photos or data are yet to be fully collected for future publication.