What is the history of Chinese herbal medicine research in China?

Herbal medicine is one of the great heritages of China medicine. The development of medicine in China started with herbs. The descendants of the Chinese nation have multiplied, accounting for a quarter of the world's population, which is inseparable from the development of ancient Chinese herbal medicines.

Herbs were called "materia medica" in ancient China, including plants, animals and minerals. Among them, plant medicines account for the vast majority, hence the name "materia medica". According to the records of Oracle Bone Inscriptions and bronze inscriptions in China and recent archaeological excavations, as early as the Yuanmou people's era (6.5438+0.7 million years ago) and Lantian people's era (600,000-800,000 years ago), the ancestors of the Chinese nation invented the methods of cooking food with fire and treating diseases with herbs. The hieroglyphic "medicine" created is the word "music" under the grass, and they dance together under the grass. Seven or eight thousand years ago, people invented stone tools to domesticate and plant wild animals and plants, plow farmland and collect herbs. Five or six thousand years ago, bronzes and ironware, medicine-grinding stone nests, ginger nests and grinding troughs were also invented one after another. Medicine and food are homologous, which is the uniqueness of Chinese herbal medicine and traditional medicine. As early as Zhou Li and The Book of Songs, there were chapters on "Eating Doctors" and "Curing Hunger". China's earliest medical monograph "Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing" was published in Han Dynasty, which was an epoch-making work in the world at that time, hundreds of years earlier than Cao Xue in ancient Greece and Rome. In the Han Dynasty, Zhang Qian sent a mission to the Western Regions, spreading rhubarb, a traditional Chinese medicine from China, to West Asia and Europe, and developed it into rhubarb soda tablets, which became a popular laxative for three centuries. This is also the great contribution of China herbs to people's health in the world.

China herbs have maintained the characteristics of combining medicine with medicine since ancient times, and are mainly composed of original plants, animals and minerals. It has the advantages of local materials, easy collection, simple use, low price and good curative effect. It has been widely circulated for thousands of years and people are willing to use it. Especially in some places rich in Chinese herbal medicine resources, such as Tibet, Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, Meng Qing New Grassland, Southern Tropical Forest, Three Gorges of Yangtze River, Bashan of Sichuan, Shaanxi, Gansu, Qinling and Loess Plateau. All the herbs are household names and are sold everywhere in the town market. According to legend, Sun Simiao handed down red cloth, knives, water and wine. Compared with western countries such as Europe and America, which have gone through a long road of synthetic medicine, and attached great importance to the research and development of natural herbal medicines, the upsurge of extracting effective components from single herbs has been formed, which shows that China herbal medicine is an important wealth in the world medical treasure house.

Chinese herbal medicines are also called "seven medicines" in many places. There are many kinds and wide distribution, and most of them have been passed down through long-term clinical practice. Some are commodities officially listed by the state and Chinese herbal medicines listed by the state in the Pharmacopoeia, and some are still used as medicinal materials in producing areas and among the people. A batch of soap books and bamboo slips "Fifty-two Prescriptions for Diseases" unearthed in Changsha in modern times recorded more than 100 diseases before Huangdi Neijing, and each disease had 1 ~ 2 prescriptions, including 20 prescriptions, 280 prescriptions and 240 kinds of drugs, of which only one third was found in Shennong Herbal Classic. It can be seen that the 365 kinds of commonly used drugs contained in Shennong Herbal Classic, the earliest general pharmacopoeia, were only a small part of folk drugs at that time. Tao Hongjing, who was the prime minister in Liang Dynasty and later studied pharmacy, wrote Notes on Shen Nong's Materia Medica and Notes on Famous Doctors, which contained 730 kinds of Chinese herbal medicines. The Newly Revised Materia Medica of Tang Dynasty is the first pharmacopoeia officially promulgated in China, which contains 844 kinds of traditional Chinese medicines. In the Song Dynasty, Zheng Ben Cao doubled, containing 1558 kinds of drugs. Compendium of Materia Medica written by Li Shizhen in Ming Dynasty included 1892 kinds of drugs, which were later translated into more than ten languages and published in more than ten countries. After the Qing Dynasty, medical classics such as Guang Fang Qun Pu and Seventy-two Medical Books of Chen Xiuyuan were still in this range. After the founding of the People's Republic of China and New China, through the general survey of Chinese herbal medicines, 1972 compiled and collected 6,500 kinds of Chinese herbal medicines nationwide, and 7 13 kinds of commonly used Chinese herbal medicines were included in the 1977 edition of China Pharmacopoeia, which is only a part of China's rich Chinese herbal medicine resources, and many of them have not yet been included. 1982, the State Council decided to conduct a comprehensive survey of traditional Chinese medicine resources throughout the country and make a long-term development plan. Since 1983, all provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions have carried out it at the same time, organized more than 40,000 scientific and technological personnel, collected 2 million specimens, and collected more than 654.38+folk prescriptions, which were compiled by China Medicinal Materials Company in China.