Compendium of Materia Medica, Bencao Gangmu, is a monumental pharmacological treatise compiled by Li Shizhen of the Ming dynasty. The work comprises 52 volumes, organized into 16 divisions and 60 categories. It documents 1,892 medicinal substances, over 11,000 prescriptions, and includes more than 1,100 illustrations of medicinal materials.
For each entry, the book standardizes the drug’s name, describes its origin, morphology, cultivation, and harvesting methods, analyzes its pharmacological properties, explains processing and preparation techniques, and critically verifies the authenticity of species while correcting errors found in earlier texts. Its content is exceptionally comprehensive.
The Bencao Gangmu systematically synthesizes Chinese pharmacological knowledge and empirical experience up to the 16th century. It stands as the definitive compendium of traditional Chinese materia medica and has been widely acclaimed by pharmacologists and botanists around the world.
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