The Origin and Development of Biomedicine Science

Origin and development of herbal medicine in China

The origin of human knowledge of medicine can be traced back to ancient times. While searching for food, people, through repeated attempts, discovered many plants with physiological effects that could be used to prevent and cure diseases, hence the saying "medicine and food are of the same origin". Ancient books record that Shennong's (about 2700 BC) tasted a hundred herbs and used them to cure diseases, and encountered seventy poisons in one day, which shows that the knowledge of medicines was gradually enriched by the long-term and extensive medical practice of our ancestors. However, in the ancient times, writing was not yet developed, and these knowledge could only be taught orally by teachers. Later, when writing became available, it was gradually recorded and medical books appeared. These books served to summarize the experience of the previous generations and facilitated the circulation and promotion of the knowledge. Since herbs accounted for most of the medicines, the books on medicines were called "Materia Medica". According to evidence, the Qin and Han dynasties, the popularity of materia medica has been more, but these materia medica have been lost, there is no trace. The earliest known work of materia medica is "Shennong Ben Cao Jing", the author is not known, according to which the name of the place, may be the Eastern Han Dynasty physician Zhang Zhongjing, Hua Tuo and others to revise the previous writings and become.

"Shennong Ben Cao Jing" book three volumes, contained animals, plants, minerals, three types of drugs **** 365 kinds, divided into the upper, middle and lower three kinds: "the upper medicine 120 kinds of king, the main nourishing life to respond to the sky, non-toxic, more than serving for a long time does not hurt, want to lighten up and benefit the qi, aging and prolonging the life of the person, this on the scripture; traditional Chinese medicine 120 kinds of subjects, the main nourishing to respond to the people, non-toxic poisonous, discretionary Its appropriate, want to curb the disease to make up for the deficiency and wonkiness, this in the scripture; under the scripture one hundred and twenty-five for the support, the main treatment of disease to respond to the ground, more poisonous, can not be taken for a long time, want to remove the cold and heat evil, break the accumulation of healing, this the lower scripture". Each drug item downloads the flavor, function and main treatment, another orderly example briefly describes the basic theory of medicine, such as poisonous, non-toxic, four gas, five flavors, with the law, the method of service and pills, bulk, paste, wine and other dosage forms, it can be said that the Shennong Ben Cao Jing is the summary of China's knowledge of the drug before the Han Dynasty, and laid the foundation for the development of the drug in the future.

During the Daoguang period of the Qing Dynasty, Wu Qi's two works on plants, "Plant Names and Facts" and "Plant Names and Facts" came out, the former documented 1714 kinds of drugs, the latter described 838 kinds of plants, for each kind of plants, color, flavor, use and origin of the narrative is quite detailed, with accurate illustrations, especially focusing on the medicinal value of the plant with the same name of the examination of the different things, so although it is not a monograph, but also an important reference for the development of medicine, it is also a good reference.

Modernization of the Chinese medicine

Development of Modern Pharmacognosy

Pharmacognosy is a science of natural medicines that has been gradually accumulated and developed in the course of human struggle against diseases, along with the needs of production development and progress of scientific research. Historically, the development of pharmacognosy can be roughly divided into three periods, namely, the traditional herbalism (or pharmacognosy) period, the modern period of commodity pharmacognosy and the modern new period of pharmacognosy.

Ancient herbal works appeared more than 2,000 years ago, and until the mid-nineteenth century, when pharmacology became an independent discipline, countries all over the world were in the period of traditional herbalism. At that time, knowledge of medicines (raw medicines) was accumulated mainly by relying on the senses and practical experience. The contents of the ancient books on herbal medicine were mainly about medical effects, but also about the names, places of origin, morphology, and characteristics of sensory identification of raw medicines and medicinal plants and animals. Because of the different regions and experience differences, the understanding of the drug since it is difficult to be consistent, but also due to the science of the time is not yet emerging, for the understanding of the drug is inevitably lost in the rough, or there are subjective conjecture.

The continuous clarification of the active ingredients of raw drugs and the rapid development of its analytical methods ushered in a new period of modern pharmacology, promoting the scientific discussion of various factors affecting the quality of raw drugs. For example, for the active ingredient is clear, the economic value is large, a large number of cultivation of medicinal plants (such as mint, digitalis, cinchona tree, etc.) for the selection of seeds, grafting, hybridization, as well as environmental conditions and cultivation techniques, pest control and other aspects of the study, in order to improve the yield and quality; on the period of harvesting of medicinal herbs, the processing method and the storage conditions and other aspects of the study, and strive to improve and maintain the excellent quality of medicinal herbs.

Artificial methods to cause mutations in the genetic factors of medicinal plants and the formation of polyploid plants, the use of tracer atoms to explore the process of the formation of active ingredients in the plant body and its influencing factors, and the use of cell and tissue culture methods to produce the active substances of medicinal plants, has made progress. As a result of the massive accumulation of knowledge of phytochemical composition, scientific exploration of the chemical composition of various types of plants and their affinities has been carried out, thus beginning to form a Plant Chemotaxonomy (Plant Chemotaxonomy), which is a science that has been developed with taxonomic significance and will facilitate the development of new biopharmaceutical resources.