Essential Guide to Traditional Chinese Medicine Identification

Author: Yang Suocheng
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-09-01
Features: This book is divided into twelve chapters and includes 414 traditional Chinese medicinal materials. Among them, the plant-based materials are categorized into ten chapters based on their medicinal parts, while the animal and mineral materials each have one chapter. Each medicinal material is named using its common Chinese name as the official name. It first briefly introduces the source, synonyms, origin, and efficacy of the material, followed by a detailed description of its plant (animal) morphology and identification methods. The source includes the botanical family name, botanical name, Latin name, and medicinal part for plant (animal) materials, as well as the mineral class name or group name, mineral or rock name, and main chemical composition for mineral materials. Synonyms generally only introduce the commonly used ones, while those that are easily confused or used in only a few regions are not included. The origin only mentions the main production areas. The efficacy is generally briefly described. The plant (animal) morphology is described in a relatively comprehensive manner. To highlight the main points, under the identification section for each material, detailed characteristics such as morphology, size, color, surface features, texture, fracture, aroma, taste, water test, and fire test are introduced. Some materials also have an additional notes section, mainly noting the confusing varieties, mixed varieties, and locally used varieties of the material. This book includes a total of 376 illustrations, with some full-plant illustrations for certain herbs to assist readers in accurate identification. At the end of the main text, an index is provided, arranged by the number of strokes in the official Chinese name of the medicinal materials, for easy reference by readers.