ABSTRACT
This article reviewed the current situation of ethnomedicines in China, and propos that the important research on ethnomedicine is to focus on the theoretical and empirical characteristics of ethnomedicine and the special features in the processes of collecting,processing and clinical application of ethnomedicine, which will be benefit to find the research principles and methods with the characteristics of ethnomedicine. These principles include making clear of the effective substances and mechanisms, and theoretical and empirical characteristics of ethnomedicine. The three methods in the new drug discovery technology system for ethnomedicine are to solve the difference in varieties of traditional medical systems depending on finding the similarities of them, to find the conjunction in varieties of traditional medical systems through the key-herbs, and to find medicinal sources in varieties of traditional medical systems according to pharmaphylogeny.