Christine Leon is a medical botanist and specialises in Chinese medicinal plants, based at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, where she has worked since 1997. She helped establish the Chinese Medicinal Plants Authentication Centre at Kew, in partnership with the Institute of Medicinal Plant Development in Beijing, China. Professor Lin Yu-Lin is a leading specialist on the identification of Chinese medicinal plants and their materia medica, and is based at the Institute of Medicinal Plant Development, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College.
It is well known (if often greatly exaggerated by the media) that
the identity of medicinal plants in commerce is sometimes
questionable, due to a combination of deliberate adulteration,
accidental substitution, and traditional practices that permit
multiple, occasionally unrelated species to be used
interchangeably. Though many elaborate laboratory methods of
authenticating botanicals have been developed, morphological
identification remains not only the most accessible and affordable
method, but the most rigorous in cases where sufficiently intact
and complete material is sold. A variety of works are available to
assist in the authentication of botanicals popular in the West, but
the best books on Chinese herbs, the basis of an increasingly
well-researched and globally
exported health care modality, are in Chinese and largely
inaccessible to Westerners. This book fills in that gap with a
top-quality, beautifully illustrated and exhaustively researched
reference work. Each of the included species receives at least a
twopage spread, commonly four pages or occasionally more.
Treatments include notes on taxonomy, botanical description,
natural range and sourcing, Traditional Chinese Medicine properties
and Western indications, description of the macromorphology of the
crude drug, notes on processing methods, Chinese common names and
their translation, notes on known safety issues, allowable and
unofficial substitutes, and photos of living plants and crude
drugs. The authors conducted field expeditions in 21 Chinese
provinces to collect vouchered material and take photos of live
plants. Most photos are of very good quality, and descriptions are
clearly written. As examples, the treatment for Shan Yao (Dioscorea
polystachya rhizome) includes four pictures of the live plant, one
of an herbarium specimen, one of baskets of rhizome pieces, two of
variously treated whole rhizomes, and three of sliced rhizomes
subjected to different types of processing. Thetreatment for Yin
Chen (Artemisia scoparia herb) includes three photos of the live
plant and five at various magnifications of two different named
types of dried material collected at different growth stages, five
photos of the second allowable pharmacopoeial species (Artemisia
capillaris), five photos of the unofficial substitute Origanum
vulgare (confused due to the name Tu Yin Chen), and a text box with
the Latin and Chinese names and key morphological distinctions of
four unofficial Artemisia species reported in the TCM literature as
substitutes. Comparable thoroughness is typical throughout. Though
of course it is not possible for any single volume to include all
TCM herbs, this work includes enough, as treated species or as
substitutes, to cover most of those that will be frequently
encountered. Multiple bilingual indices make the information easy
to find. While this volume will become an essential reference for
those ethnobotanists who wind up employed in the herbal industry,
it will have value also for those doing research on Asian
traditional medicine, e.g., by facilitating the identification of
materials purchased for market studies or acquired from
practitioners without associated vouchers. The authors are to be
congratulated for a superb contribution to the literature, which I
certainly expect to make use of for a lifetime.
*ECONOMIC BOTANY*
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