Ling Zhi

[Guest guest]

Eric,

 

It looks like there is at least three genera used, no? Yes, it would appear as

if they are lumping them together, Viscum into the Loranthaceae. For many years

now the botanist have tried to hold onto their jobs by lumping and splitting

genera. (That's not entirely true as, of course, new information comes to light

all the time, it just seems that way sometimes.) My personal opinion is that

they should not lump these two genera together, but I'm no botanist and I'm sure

that within the next decade or so they will have more definative work done on

the two genera.

 

Also, I wanted to point out that Viscum is also used in Western herbology. In

fact, I believe I saw Viscum album (the species used in the West) listed in at

least one CM materia medica. I have used it like sang ji sheng and it seems to

work very similarly.

 

Do you know which species we mostly see here in the West?

 

Anyway, another example of this is sheng ma, which many of us have known as

Cimicifuga, has been changed to Actea. This is actually its original genus. I

find this interesting because I have been using an actea species similarly to

the Cimicifuga species for quite a few years. I always knew they were closely

related, now it seems closer than many had previously thought.

 

As to the WHO project. At what stage is this project? Is there any preliminary

data available.

 

Regards,

Thomas

 

Eric said:

The official species in the pharmacopeia is Taxillus chinensis (D.C.)

Danser. The zhong yao da ci dian says Loranthaceae, and then goes on

to distinguish by production areas as follows: Red-berried mistletoe

(Viscum coloratum), China (mainly north, but also widely distributed

over the south). Southern mistletoe and hairy mistletoe (Loranthus

spp.), China (south of the Yangtze). It looks like they may be

lumping the genera together, no?

 

There is some controversy with drug sources vis-a-vis their official

species for TCM. The PRC pharmacopeia book that has been everyone's

standard may no longer continue to be the standard. I think that

updating these names is part of the current tasks that the WHO

commission is seeking to tackle

 

 

 

Professor of

Honolulu, HI

808-349-8219

 

www.herbsandmore.photostockplus.com

 

 

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