Yesterday I shared a link to an incredible article on pao zhi by Prof. Zhao Zhongzhen of Hong Kong Baptist University.  Dr. Zhao is a prolific expert in herbal pharmacy and I find his work to be absolutely inspirational.  This article, published in April 12, 2011 in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology, is another treasure from his published English works.

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Unlike yesterday's link to the Planta Medica article on medicinal processing, this article is not available as a free full-text download.  However, the article is fantastic and well-worth the price of the download if one lacks access to an institutional subscription or the print journal itself.  The article is concerned with morphological identification of Chinese medicinals, so the focus is extremely practical for practitioners that are interested in Chinese herbal pharmacy.  The abstract is below, and this link has an overview of the table of contents.

Fans of Prof. Zhao's work will also enjoy this ground-breaking article on authentication published in Planta Medica, as well as this comprehensive (and free!) article on commonly confused medicinals in the Hong Kong market.

Abstract

Authentication is fundamental for the standardization of Chinese Materia Medica. Macroscopic identification, an important method of authentication, has a long history rooted in practice and experience over generations. In ancient times, macroscopic features were used not only to identify the genuineness, but also to evaluate the quality of Chinese medicinal materials (CMMs). In many ancient documents, picturesque terms were used to describe the quality of certain specific CMMs. These traditional macroscopic descriptions used for identification are filled with characteristics, quality descriptions, and specifications of CMM that need to be confirmed by modern scientific analysis. In this paper, the essential and fundamental components of macroscopic identification are introduced. As the quality and macroscopic characteristics of CMM are traditionally thought to be closely related, modern scientific approaches to confirm the validity of these associations are discussed. This review clarifies the role of macroscopic features in the quality assessment of CMM.

Once again, here's the link for the Journal of Ethnopharmacology article.