STUDIES ON THE IDENTIFICATION OF CHINESE DRUG XIN YI,THE FLOWER-BUDS OF MAGNOLIA

The drug Xinyi has long been used in traditional Chinese medicine for the treatment of stuffy nose due to rhinitis and nasosinusitis.The flower-buds of three Magnolia species, viz. Magnolia biondii, M. denudata and M. liliflora have been included in Chinese Pharmacopoeia 1977. A survey of the botanical origin of this drug, however, revealed that the flower-buds of three other Magnolia species, viz. M. sargentiana, M. sprengeri and M. wilsonii have also been used in some districts of Southwest China.In this paper, the morphological and histologocal characters of the flower-buds of the above mentioned six species are summarized in two tables and illustrated with line drawings.