Chinese herbal medicine forms the back bone of so called TCM. It stands for Traditional Chinese Medicine. Seemingly it only relates to the MEDICINES made of natural stuff, but in fact it extends to the treatment methods such as acupuncture, acu-massage, cupping, skin scraping, bloodletting, moxibustion……etc.

TCM can be traced back in China to as early as 2000 B.C. or even earlier. The first book touched about TCM was Inner Canon of Yellow Emperor published around 700 B.C.

The book Treatise on Cold Pathogenic Diseases compiled by the great doctor / scholar Zhang Zhong Jin around 200 A.D. gave details about various illness.

Then finally in 1590 came the master piece Compendium of Materia Medica which, for the first time in China, systematically as well as scientifically categorized and described the use of TCM. It was complied by the devoted pharmacologist Li Shi Zhen covering 1,892 species of natural substance, some 11,000 formula for treatment, and 1,160 graphic drawing for identification of the species, truly a remarkable accomplishment and the treasure of Chinese culture. Without doubt the TCM practitioners  in China have been using this book as the primary resource for reference。

Note: The recent Lasker Medical Research Awards granted to the discovery of artemisinin to treat malaria is actually the result of research originated from this great Compendium of Materia Medica.