STUDY OF THE CHINESE DRUG SHI-HU(Dendrobiums)——Ⅰ. INVESTIGATION OF BOTANICAL ORIGIN AND THE DRUG

Shi-hu is a traditional Chinese drug. It has the effect of promoting the salivary secretion and alleviating thirst. The commercial standards and names of this drug sold in the Chinese market are quite different, on the basis of different processing methods. A revision has been made in the present paper as to the plant sources and botanical orgin of this drug, based on both field and herbarium work. There are two kinds of crude drugs, i. e. dry goods and fresh plant, in the market under 9 names assigned to 21 species. Most of them belong to genus Dendrobium Sw. and a few others to Ephemerantha P. F. Hunt et Summerh.The results are summarized in the following table. Among the largest in quantity are: Dendrobium loddigesii Rolfe, Dendrobium candidum Wall. ex Lindl., Dendrobium hercoglossum Rchb. f., Dendrobium chrysanthum Wall. ex Lindl., Dendrobium fimbriatum Hook., Dendrobium aduncum Wall. ex Lindl. and Dendrobium lohohense Tang et Wang, Keys for both plants and commercial drugs as well as some photograph of them have been provided to facilitate the identification.