Three orchids used as herbal medicines in China: an attempt to reconcile Chinese and Western pharmacology

Abstract

The use of orchids as herbal medicines has a very long history in China (Hu, 1971). A total of 365 plants, including several orchids (Figs. 6-1–6-52, Tables 6-1, 6-2), is listed in the earliest known Chinese Materia Medica (Shen Nung Pen-tsao Ching, Divine Husbandsman’s Classic of the Materia Medica; Hu, 1971). Authorship of this classic has been attributed to Sheng Nong, the mythical Chinese ‘Divine Husbandman’ (3484 BC). According to various sources, it first appeared in the late Han (Hou Han; 25–220 AD) and became a medical professional text through the editorial work of Wu Pu of the Wei period (220–265 AD; see the preface of the 1955 edition of Sheu Nung Pen-tsao Ching and Table 6-3). However, it has also been suggested that this classic was compiled not earlier than the first century AD by unknown authors and reconstructed later by Tao Hong Jing (452–536 AD), the famous Taoist (Bensky et al., 1986). Yet another view is that this Materia Medica must have been compiled after Confucius (551–478 BC) because the Confucian school of thought was used to classify drugs and describe their functions (Hu, 1971). Drugs were classified (Wu, 1955; Li, 1977), as superior (king), medium (ministers) and inferior (subordinate officers).