ABSTRACT
Bupleuri Radix, originally appeared in Chinese materia medica (CMM) dating from the Han Dynasty, is a commonly used herb in clinical practice. According to ancient Chinese medical literatures, the morphological description of Bupleuri Radix was vague based on the species-rich and similar patterns, thus it exhibited significantly problems in species identification of Bupleuri Radix which applied in ancient Chinese medicine clinical practice. This paper summarizes important descriptions of morphology and efficacy of Bupleuri Radix from CMM in past dynasties. Research results from modern scholars about identification Bupleuri Radix are summarized to find out which species of Bupleuri Radix in clinic by traditional Chinese physicians. A kind of Bupleurum plants, having consistent efficacy, were used by traditional Chinese physicians before the Tang Dynasty, then Bupleurum scorzonerifolium., B. yinchowense, and Stellariae dichotoma var. lanceolata were used as Bupleuri Radix simultaneously. Stellariae Radix, its efficacy is different from the efficacy of Bupleuri Radix, was distinguished from Bupleuri Radix in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. With the deepening of research of taxonomy, “Bei Chai Hu” (corresponded to B. chinese DC.) and “Nan Chai Hu” (corresponded to B. scorzonerifolium Willd.) first appeared in the Ming Dynasty and the Republic of China era respectively.
ABSTRACT
As an application of the historic edible plants, the development prospect of vine tea is wide, but now it is only contained by local Chinese Materia Medica Standards. We use the thinking method of herbal textual research for analysis on vine tea recorded in different Herbal Works and modern literatures and a comparative study on botany in order to obtain a deeper understanding of the name, the origin, and the traditional efficacy of it and to provide the documentation basis on its clinical use and reasonable development of plant resources.