An Investigation of the Characteristics of Edible Chinese Herbs Recorded in Classic Formulas of China

In order to investigate the characteristics of edible Chinese herbs recorded in classic formulas of China, 86 formulas used for dietetic therapy were selected from Zhong Hua Yi Dian. All the edible Chinese herbs included in these formulas were input into the Access database. The analysis of the nature, flavor, and channel entered for these herbs was followed by using Spss 13.0 software. The results of analysis showed that herbs with neutral nature were the most popular, took up 41.8%, followed by herbs with warm nature, took up 28.1%; Sweet flavor herbs were the most frequently-used, took up 48.7%, next were the pungent flavor herbs, took up 23.0%; Spleen and Stomach channel entered herbs were the most, took up 38.6%, followed were Kidney channel entered herbs, took up 17.3%. These investigation results suggest that sweet flavor Chinese herbs with neutral or warm nature may be used a lot in dietetic therapy. Sweet flavor Chinese herbs enter Spleen channel and Spleen is the foundation of acquired constitution in Traditional Chinese Medicine [1,2]. Pungent flavor correspondences to Yang and pungent flavor herbs can improve the movement of Qi on the basis of the theory of Traditional Chinese Medicine [3]. Therefore, Spleen and Stomach channel entered sweet or pungent flavor Chinese herbs are popular in dietetic therapy. Acknowledgements: Thanks to the support for this research from the project of Beijing University of Chinese Medicine (No.101002604). References: [1] Xue H (2011) Medicinal Theory and Practice, 24: 1225 – 1226. [2] Huang L, Tang S (2009)J Trad Chinese Med, 50: 680 – 682. [3] Wang H (2006)J Shan-Dong Trad Chinese Med, 25: 82 – 84.