Original and substituted plants for Tibetan medicine Lignum Caraganae / 中草药

ABSTRACT

Lignum Caraganae is used as a Tibetan medicine originated in the record in Four Medical Tantras written in the 8th century AD. Afterwards, Shel Gong Shel Phreng and many other Tibetan and Chinese medicine works kept recording of it. In pertinent literature, there are large differences in names and plant sources about Lignum Caraganae. In this paper, literature textual investigation on Lignum Caraganae about its names, original and substituted plants, medicinal parts was conducted. Besides, the plant morphology, name modification, distribution, and traditional application of relevant plants were summarized. The results showed that the original plant of Lignum Caraganae was Caragana jubata, which produced from Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and its red heart wood was used as crude medicine. C. changduensis, and C. tibetica were also used as original plants in a certain area. Five kinds of other plants in Caragana genus and Caesalpinia sappan were often used as a substitute for Lignum Caraganae.