NOTES ON THE BOTANIC ORIGIN OF HUANG-CHIN——RADIX SCUTELLARIA

In the current literature,the botanic origin if Huang-chin is indiscriminately referred to Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi.A recent field survey together with investigation in the drug-market,however,revealed that the root of 3 more species of this genus were mixed in as Huang-chin.Based on material-collected from 11 provinces throughout this country,we also found: Scutellaria viscidula Bge.,S.amoena Wight and S.rehderiana Diels.Among these 4 species mentioned above,S.baicalensis keeps its leading position both in quality and in quantity,S.amoena is used in the south west provinces,such as Yunnan and Szechuan,while the remaining two are but mixed with S.baicalensis in small scale,hence quite insignificant.