Chinese Medicinal Plants & Drugs

• The first comprehensive, botanically authoritative, illustrated identification guide to Chinese medicinal plants and drugs and their substitutes• Written by expert authors, based on their extensive field work across China’s 19 provinces over the past 15 years • Covers 242 herbal drugs used in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), representing 500 official (Chinese Pharmacopoeia) species and 400 substitute species• Comprehensively illustrated throughout with over 3000 colour photographs, showing the plants and drugs (unprocessed and processed), with inset macroscopic images illustrating key characteristics to aid identification • Plant descriptions and the derivative drug morphology are given for official species and substitutes, with details on the harvesting, source and natural range, conservation status, as well as the number of wild Chinese species, drug common names, properties and uses, and toxicity rating • First TCM identification book to feature fresh and verified plant species and processed drugs prepared to traditional methods• Includes English and pin yin drug names, Latin plant names and synonyms • Easy to use identification guide, with colour coded sections representing different plant parts• Joint project between the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and the Institute of Medicinal Plant Development, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences