Sixty-three years with Chinese herbal medicines; memoir of a botanist.

Abstract

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) went through a complete metamorphosis between 1935-1998. The same is trued the bones of its structure, the Chinese herbal medicines (CHM). Actually, TCM is a gradual crystallization of various ethnomedicines of different peoples living in China. For two thousand years, it has been a health care system operated in town by practitioners who learned the trade through family tradition or by apprenticeship, and in rural areas by shamans. It is only in the last few decades of the twentieth century that it has absorbed scientific knowledge and modern technique. Now, it is modernized and has aroused worldwide interest. During the time of metamorphic change in TCM and its associated CHM, I have lived with it, grown in it, learned a great deal of CHM and contributed to it. By training I am a professional botanist. However, when there were specific issues of CHM that required the participation of a botanist, I answered the call. The results of projects that took much time and of problems that required extensive research were published when the works were completed. A list of these publications issued in a period of over sixty years is given here as an illustration of challenges facing Chinese scientists in the recent evolution of TCM. During this period, four-fifths of my time was spent in the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, first as a graduate student for three years and then as a research botanist. Actually, the problems of CHM that called for my participation were the needs of society for the services of an institution that could only be provided by the Arnold Arboretum at the time. My research laboratory in the Harvard University Herbaria is next door to the Chinese Library of Harvard Yenching Institute. Together with specimens and libraries, they make an ideal place for addressing the challenges of Chinese herbal medicines.