Traditional Chinese Medicine and Chinese Materia Medica

Understanding Traditional Chinese Medicine to strengthen conservation outcomes

“…They are 'deeper' in the body than the fu bowels, with distinct functions that only partially correspond with their equivalently named organs in biomedicine. These five organs tend to serve as repositories for 'substances' like qi (Kaptchuk, 2000;Xu et al, 2018).…”

“…These are not only important for TCM practitioners in their provision of treatments, but conservationists could benefit from knowing that each of these has a special affinity for receiving different plant-, animal-and mineral-based medicinal substances (Kaptchuk, 2000;Xu et al, 2018).…”

“…shen (神/神/shén, spirit) and jinye (津液/津液/jīn yè, fluids) are considered to be bodily 'substances' (Kaptchuk, 2000;Xu et al, 2018).…”

“…antibiotic contamination of soil and water resources, or the use of horseshoe crab blood in vaccine production). We encourage those seeking further depth or clarity on TCM to explore the primary research and TCM resources cited (we highlight Kaptchuk, 2000; Sivin, 1987; Xu et al., 2018 as key sources of factual TCM knowledge in this paper).…”

Solving the puzzle: what is behind our forefathers’ anti-inflammatory remedies?

“… China Of 46 Chinese materia medica vine plants, 44 have been used to treat rheumatism and related inflammatory diseases [ 92 ], alleviate pain in joints and muscles, relieve fever and stiffness in the limbs and expel “wind-dampness” [ 93 ], a term related to rheumatic fever, rheumatoid arthritis, and osteoarthropathy [ 91 ]. Of these plants, Tripterygium wilfordii (“léi gοng téng” in China, Celastraceae ) roots and stems and Trachelospermum jasminoides (“confederate-jasmine”, Apocynaceae ) stems have been used in decoctions for centuries.…”