Herbal medicine has been used in China for thousands years. Its effect for managing human diseases is evidenced by the everlasting Chinese civilization although there were countless wars and epidemics of plagues in history.
Recorded systematic use of herbs to treat ailments started from physician Zhong Zhongjing (150-219) in Han Dynasty. He established medication principles and summed up the medicinal experience up until that time (left).
Following his step, numerous practitioners contributed to the development of herbal medicine. One of the prominent is Li Shizheng (1518-1593) in Ming dynasty, the greatest scientific naturalist of China. His major contribution is his scientific book Compendium of Mataria Medica(Bencao Gangmu) which was completed after 27 years of hard work. He developed many innovative methods for the proper classification of herb components and medications to be used for treating diseases (right).
