Chinese Medicinal Plants - Plant Volume

Author: Zheng Hanchen, Editor-in-Chief
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 food and beverages, flavorings, 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 value, medicinal value, and recipes. The primary readership includes food, plant, and traditional Chinese medicine professionals, faculty and students of universities and colleges specializing in food, pharmacy, and traditional Chinese medicine, as well as general enthusiasts of plants, traditional Chinese medicine, and gourmet cuisine. 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 their edible or medicinal parts to aid in identification. The book is organized in taxonomic order from lower to higher plants, with angiosperms arranged according to the Engler classification system widely used by Chinese botanists, facilitating readers in cross-referencing specialized plant literature and comparing closely related species when necessary. Additionally, readers can locate plants by their Chinese, Latin, and English names in the index at the back of the book. All measurements, counts, and percentages are expressed in Arabic numerals, while units of measurement are presented in 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, but this book only includes the most widely used ones (up to five). If a Latin name has common synonyms, they are noted in brackets after the primary name. "Habitat and distribution" refers to the living environments and natural ranges of plants in their wild state, which helps in collection and creating conditions for cultivation or introduction. The recipes included in the book are sourced from various medical and pharmaceutical literature and are provided for reference only. Treatment must always follow medical advice. Most of the photographs in the book were taken by the authors, except for the ecological images of sweet orange, Gynostemma pentaphyllum, and Panax notoginseng, which were reproduced from Illustrated Catalogue of Chinese Herbal Medicine. The majority of the plants included in this book are commonly or frequently used edible-medicinal plants. Some species marked with symbols are included based on preliminary conditions and will be introduced to the public once photographs are fully captured or additional information is collected.