Ethnobotany and development of new Traditional Chinese Medicines

摘要

Ethnobotany in China is being widely used for the documentation of indigenous knowledge about the usage of plants and inventorising plants that have been used in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) since 3,000 BC. In recent years, the latter has becomean important part of ethnobotanical studies. Recent approaches towards TCM development in China have shifted from inheritance to modernization. This has brought forth great opportunities and challenges to the TCM and medicinal plants as well. The paperdiscusses some ethnobotanical aspects of traditional medicine in relation to development of new drugs and modernization of TCM in China.