Lingnan Herbs (ONE)

Lingnan region is located in the tropical zone, south subtropical zone and middle subtropical zone with unique geographical and ecological characteristics that prompt the growth of animals and plants. Additionally, the region has become a natural resource conservatory of medical plants with diversified germ plasm in an optimal growing environment. Lingnan region boasts a wide range of herbal medicine resources. Based on statistics, there are over 4,500 kinds of medicinal resources, representing 36% of the medicinal resources nationwide. Among these medicinal resources, 4,000 kinds are terrestrial plants. Among the specialties of Southern medicine, Guangzhou Pharmaceutical products are of high quality. Some of these medicinal ingredients have obvious geographical characteristics and advantages such as; Spring Amomum, Patchouli, Morinda, Citrus grandis, Galangal, Alpinia vera, Polygonum multiflorum, Sophora, Snowbellleaf Tickclover Herb, Suberect Spatholobus Stem, and Betel Nuts.

Moreover, Lingnan region has successfully introduced and domesticated over 30 plants from the Southern and Southeastern Asia, including cardamom, cloves, South cinnamon, strychnine, chaulmoogra, sandalwood, Indian Garcinia, Myrobalan, cloud wood, benzoin, Homalomena and so on. Guangdong province is one of the major distribution centers of Chinese herbal medicines since it is abundant in medicinal herbs resources. According to a census, the Guangdong province (including Hainan) has a total of 2,645 kinds of Chinese herbal medicinal resources, among which 2,500 are medicinal plants, 120 are medicinal animal parts and 25 are medicinal minerals. According to statistics, Dinghushan National Nature Conservation Area located in Guangdong province has 193 families, 677 types and 1,077 species of medicinal plants, while Luofoshan has 1,600 species of medicinal plants. In addition, there is an annual production of home-grown and raw medicinal reserve of over 100 tons with a variety of about 194 types. There are over 100 species of medicinal materials exported from the province of Guangdong, 80% of which come from wild varieties. There are also 84 species of medicinal materials which are sold to other provinces and regions.

Lingnan Herbs is one of the seven classics of "the Lingnan Chinese Medicine Library". This collection of classics inherits and carries forward the ideas of the Lingnan Herbal academic and holds a wealth of information of the ancient dynasties. It consolidates a comprehensive collation, analysis and summarizes the research and application of the Lingnan Chinese herbal medicine since the founding of People's Republic of China, especially in recent decades. Lingnan Herbs will be created in volumes by describing each herbal medicines through updated and accurate data received from various scientific research performed in different fields of medicine. Each medicinal species is beautifully illustrated with colorful images with an accurate description.

The detailed description of each species makes up the main body of the book. In the text, the names of the Chinese medicinals are listed as the main title, under which 20 entries are listed and developed, such as the alternative name, released name, Materia Medica records, the source of the medicinal (plant, animal or mineral), habitat distribution, cultivation or feeding methods, harvesting and processing techniques, identification characteristics, preparation methods and so on.

In the complete series each volume has various indexes including the index of the English names, Chinese names and Latin names of the Chinese medicinals. At the end of the series a complete index is listed which includes all three indexes.

Lingnan Herbs Series are edited by Xu Honghua and Zhang Junrong as chief peer reviewers, and Chen Weiwen as chief editor. This series is divided into 10 sections and an editor is in charge of each section. For example, Li Wei is responsible for the sections titled "alternative name, released name, Materia Medica records, and identification characteristics"; Pan Chaomei is responsible for the sections titled "the source of the original plant, animal or mineral, and habitat distribution"; He Guozhen is responsible for the sections titled "cultivation and feeding methods, and harvesting and processing "; Huang Zhihai and Tan Shuhui are responsible for the sections titled "product specifications and quality"; Xu Yanchen is responsible for the "preparation methods" section; Lin Li is responsible for the "chemical composition" section; Wu Qinghe is responsible for "the modern pharmacological" section; Zhou Liling and Wang Lisheng are responsible for "the modern preparations" section; Lan Senlin and Wu Qingguang are responsible for the sections titled "medicinal properties, function, usage consumption, clinical reports, and cautions"; Zhan Ruoting is responsible for the " comprehensive " section; and finally Huang Haibo and Xu Yanchen are responsible for "pictures and type setting".

The book comprehensively reflects the academic development and rich diversity of the Lingnan Chinese medicine which lays the foundation for promoting research of sustainable use and development of traditional Chinese medicine resources in the Lingnan system.

PLEASE NOTE: The full text of this publication is in Chinese.