A PHARMACOGNOSTICAL STUDY OF THE CHINESE DRUGS TS'ANG SHU AND PAI SHU

The Chinese medicinal plants "Ts'ang Shu" (蒼术) and "Pai Shu" (白术) belong to the Composite Family, and rhizomes of both have been used as crude drugs in China since ancient times. Originally, they were recorded by a common name "Shu" in the Chinese herbal, named "Sheng Nung Pen Ts'ao Ching" (神农 本草经), but they were distinguished into different names in the later Chinese herbals. The writers attempted to clearify the confusion of names, botanical origin and sources of these two drugs in the Chinese market, and made a preliminary study on twenty two samples collected from different places and drug stores. By botanical and pharmacognostical idendifications, we found that the dried rhizomes appeared in several markets in Kiangsu, Anhwei and Shantung provinces known as "Ts'ang Shu" was a wild species, Atractylodes lancea (Thunb.) D C., while those known as "Pai Shu" appeared in the markets in Shanghai, Nanking and Hangchow was Atractylodes macrocephala Koidz., a species widely cultivated in Chekiang Province. The above-mentioned species were compared with the descriptions of the Chinese herbals. The botanical and pharmacognostical descriptions of plants and rhizomes were given in detail, and accompanied with 13 drawings and 4 photographs. The rhizomes of "Ts'ang Shu" and "Pai Shu" were easily recognized by their external markings. They had similarities in the internal structures: having the structure of dicotyledonous type; presence of rows of stone cells in phellem; containing raphides of calcium oxalate and inulin in parenchyma, but absence of starch grains. The chief distinguished characteristics for identification of these two rhizomes are tabulated as follows: