In ancient times, people came to realize that some plants and animal parts had dramatic effects when consumed by humans, such as causing vomiting, perspiration, diarrhea, etc. There was a legend that 4,000 years ago there was an emperor called Shen Nong (shen means god; nong means agriculture), who devoted himself to the development of agriculture. He tasted hundreds of plants to find out if they were fit to eat, in the process discovered many plants with pharmacological effects. Hence, the name of the first classical work on Chinese materia medica, published around 1,800 years ago, was attributed to him, and known as Shen Nong¡¯s Herbal Classic (Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing). It contains details of 365 drugs.
Various methods of processing of these natural drugs were developed and summarized in a book named Lei¡¯s Treatise on the Preparation of Drugs (Lei Gong Pao Zhi Lun), written by Lei Xiao around 1,500 years ago. It was the first book of its kind. After processing, either the effectiveness of the processed drug increased or its toxicity decreased.
The number of TCD increased steadily as the years went by. In the Tang Dynasty (618-907), for the first time the government published (in 659) a book on TCD named The Newly Revised Materia Medica (Xin Xiu Ben Cao) or The Tang Materia Medica (Tang Ben Cao), which included details of 850 drugs, many of them were illustrated. Fifty years later, a book named Dietetic Materia Medica (Shi Liao Lei Ben Cao), written by Dr Meng Xian on drugs used as food, was published. In the Song Dynasty (960-1279), Dr Tang Shenwei edited Classic Classified Materia Medica for Emergencies (Jing Shi Zheng Lei Bei Ji Ben Cao), or the Classified Materia Medica (Zheng Lei Ben Cao), which listed 1,746 drugs and had many useful prescriptions attached. In the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), a monumental work on materia medica, Compendium of Materia Medica (Ben Cao Gang Mu), was compiled by the great doctor and pharmacist Li Shizhen and published in 1590. In 52 volumes, it contained details of 1,892 drugs, 1,160 pictures and 11,096 prescriptions. This was a multidisciplinary book of botany, pharmacognosy, pharmacology and therapeutics. The Chinese Materia Medica Dictionary, published in 1977, contained details of 5,766 drugs, while the Glossary of Chinese Materia Medica, published in 1993, contained details of 8,488 drugs. A recent survey found that the number of TCD has now been raised to 12,807, among which 11,146 are drugs of plant origin, 1,581 are drugs of animal origin, and 80 are mineral origin.
