STUDY ON THE BOTANICAL ORIGIN OF THE CHINESE DRUG WANG PU LIU HSING

The plant drug "Wang Pu Liu Hsing"(王不留行)has been used in Chinese medicine since ancient times and was first described in"Sheng Nung Pen Ts'ao Ching"(神农本草经).In the later Chinese herbals,the drug is represented by several plants of different botanical origin.At present,this drug sold in the market is also of great confusion regarding its botanical origin.The attempt of this paper is to clarify the confused state about the names,botanical origin and sources of this drug in the Chinese market.The material on hand consists of thirty five specimens of commercial drugs collected from thirty one cities and districts distributing among seventeen provinces in this country.It is found that there are twelve species of different plants belonging to seven genera and seven families although all bear the same name"Wang Pu Liu Hsing".Vaccaria pyramidata Medic,is the commonest one sold in the drug market.On a critical study of the ancient herbals concerning this drug,it is obvious that the one mentioned by Li Shih-Chen(李时珍)(1522—1596)in his distinguished work"Pen Ts'ao Kang Mu"(本草纲目)should be adopted as the correct one,because his description of this herb can be definitely referred to the plant Vaccaria pyramidata Medic."Sheng Nung Pen Ts'ao Ching"(神农本草经),which first gave the name"Wang Pu Liu Hsing",gives only a very brief account on the drug through which no determination can be readily made.The sources of drug and part of plant used for medicine of the twelve species hereto known as"Wang Pu Liu Hsing"are tabulated as follows: Except in five procinces in south and south-western China,the drug sold under this name in the other provinces are all in seeds.It is interesting to note that these"Wang Pu Liu Hsing"seeds are of two types—the pure type and the mixed type.The former consisits only the seeds of Vaccaria pyramidata,and the latter consists of Vaccaria seeds mixed with those of different species of Vicia.This is due to the ignorance on the part of the drug-collectors who being unaware of the identity of the genuine species of"Wang Pu Liu Hsing",indiscriminately collect Vicia seeds,together with Vaccaria seeds,since these plants usually grow together in the wheat field.