Chinese Materia Medica: Vegetable Kingdom

What it is

An English guide to the plant drugs of the Chinese pharmacopoeia, built on the Bencao Gangmu (1578) of Li Shizhen and on Chinese drug shops of the time.

Whose knowledge it records

Written by an American missionary physician in Shanghai, translating and summarizing Chinese medical texts.

Passages transcribed

• ACANTHOPANAX SPINOSUM (p. 4)
• ACERANTHUS SAGITTATUS (pp. 4–5)
• ALPINIA OFFICINARUM (pp. 31–32)
• AQUILARIA AGALLOCHA.—沉香 (Ch‘en-hsiang). (two excerpts) (pp. 44–45)
• ARTEMISIA ANNUA.—黃花蒿 (Huang-hua-hao). (p. 50)
• BUPLEURUM FALCATUM and BUPLEURUM OCTORADIATUM (p. 76)
• CARTHAMUS TINCTORIUS (pp. 94–95)
• CARYOPHYLLUS AROMATICUS (pp. 95–96)
• CHRYSANTHEMUM SINENSE (pp. 106–107)
• CORDYCEPS SINENSIS (pp. 126–127)
• CRYPTOTÆNIA CANADENSIS (pp. 133–134)
• GARDENIA FLORIDA (pp. 183–184)
• GYNURA PINNATIFIDA (pp. 201–202)
• ILLICIUM ANISATUM (pp. 214–215)
• LONICERA JAPONICA (pp. 246–247)
• LYCIUM CHINENSE (p. 250)
• MAGNOLIA HYPOLEUCA (pp. 254–255)
• MUSHROOMS (pp. 271–272)
• OCIMUM BASILICUM (p. 289)
• PACHYRHIZUS THUNBERGIANUS (p. 299)
• PANAX GINSENG (p. 302)
• PERILLA OCIMOIDES (p. 313)
• PIPER NIGRUM (p. 334)
• PLANTAGO MAJOR (p. 335)
• POLYGONUM MULTIFLORUM (pp. 342–343)
• REHMANNIA GLUTINOSA (pp. 371–372)
• RHEUM OFFICINALE, Rheum palmatum (pp. 374–375)
• ROSMARINUS OFFICINALIS (p. 381)
• SCHIZANDRA CHINENSIS (p. 398)
• SCUTELLARIA MACRANTHA (pp. 400–401)
• SINAPIS (p. 408)
• TRIBULUS TERRESTRIS (p. 441)
• ZANTHOXYLUM BUNGEI (pp. 462–463)
• ZANTHOXYLUM PIPERITUM (p. 463)
• ZIZYPHUS JUJUBA and ZIZYPHUS VULGARIS (pp. 466–467)