[Development and expectation of modernization of herbal medicines]

Natural herbs are useful by-products found by ancients when they searched and tasted natural vegetative foods. In the first century, herbal medicines had been much developed and independent academic systems had been established, as summarized separately in Chinese Shennong's Classics of Herbs and On Materia Medica written by Dioscorides of the Roman Empire. However, following rapid progress of modern science and technologies since Renaissance, clinical application of herbs was almost replaced by more effective artificial medicines in the West world, so the scientific research of herbs was almost abandoned. But in China, herbs are still constantly used by TCM physicians in their clinical practice and scientific studies for modernization of Chinese herbs have been carried out vigorously with attractive achievements since recent half of the last century. Therefore, the gap of herbal investigation and development in Western medicine will be successfully filled in by Chinese medical field.