 Chinese Medicine |
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| Herbs |
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According to Chinese legend, Shen Nung, the father of agriculture and leader of an ancient clan, took it upon himself to test, one by one, hundreds of different plants to discover their nutritional and medicinal properties. Many of these turned out to be poisonous to humans. Over the millennia, Chinese have used themselves as guinea pigs in this same way to continue testing plants of inducing cold (han), heat (jeh), warmth (wen), and coolness (liang). They classified the medicinal effects of the plants on various parts of the body, then tested them to determine their toxicity, what dosages would be lethal, and so forth.
For example, the stem of Chinese ephedra is a sudorific; but its roots, to the contrary, can check perspiration. Cassia bark is warming in nature, and is useful in treating colds. Mint is cooling in nature, and is used to relieve the symptoms of illness resulting from heat factors. This accumulation of experience strengthened the Chinese understanding of natural phenomena, and increased the application of natural principles in Chinese medicine.
There are 6,000 herbs currently used in Chinese herbal medicine, and from these countless formulas are devised for use with patients.
Although the vast majority of 'herbs' used in Chinese herbal medicine are plants, some animal / insects / animal materials - such as lizards, deer antlers, centipede and scorpion - and minerals are occasionally used.
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