[Pharmacological research on Chinese materia medica in Modern China and TCM].

The experimental pharmacological research on Ma-Huang and Tang-Kuei (Danggui) by Chen Kokuei and his colleagues in 1923, is the proem of scientific research on Chinese materia medica (CMM) in China. In the 1930's, a number of scientific research institutions were established in China, such as, the Institute of Physiology, National Academy of Peiping and the pharmaceutical laboratory of the experimental hygiene station, National Economic Council. Experts undertook extensive research on CMM. They injected the rough extractum or purified active constituent in laboratory animals to observe the characteristics of drugs and published a series of treatises. They made experimental objectives and selected experimental herbs according to TCM theory. Their inheritance and innovation in the research demonstrated better rationality than simultaneous overseas scholars to whom they were therefore superior.