by Eric Brand

Last weekend, I had the pleasure of visiting the Berkeley Botanical Gardens, where they have an excellent selection of Chinese medicinal plants. I'd highly recommend that all Bay-area TCM geeks take a trip there. While the gardens are not huge, they are quite comprehensive and the surrounding environment is incredible. Redwoods and the Berkeley hills surround a garden of ornamental and medicinal plants from across the world, definitely a must see.

I had the pleasure to visit the gardens with my teacher Dr. Zhao Zhong-Zhen, who was visiting from Hong Kong. Dr. Zhao is an expert in pharmacy and Chinese medicinal botany, so it was a treat to be there with him. It was fascinating to walk through the gardens and learn little tidbits about the plants that I didn't know before.

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For example, the name Ban Zhi Lian comes because the flowers on the plant only grown on one half of the stem (ban zhi).

Datura, long-speculated to be a key ingredient in Hua-Tuo's lost formula for surgical anesthesia was tested in the 1800s by a Japanese surgeon. It was documented that Hua Tuo had done surgery under anesthesia, but the recipe (Ma Fei San) was lost. The world's first well-documented surgery under anesthesia was based on the use of datura, which was suspected to be a key ingredient in Hua Tuo's original recipe.

Xin Yi Hua comes out in the spring, at a time when the leaves have not yet come out. When Xin Yi is harvested, the fuzzy little flower buds are the only thing growing on the plant. If you break open the core of the flower, it should produce a powerful scent from its safrole-rich essential oil. (The Xin Yi specimen growing at the botanical gardens in Berkeley is an ornamental hybrid, evidenced by its purple flowers and the fact that flowers and leaves appear at the same time. The medicinal plant never has flowers and leaves at the same time.)

The subspecies of Ma Huang can be determined by the number of tiny leaves it has by the joints. Ephedra sinica has three leaves at the joints (this accounts for about 70% of the Chinese domestic crop, and it has a high ratio of ephedrine to pseudoephedrine). Apparently the cultivation of ephedra in North America has been largely unsuccessful at yielding an alkaloid-rich finished product.

The leaves of Yin Yang Huo are distinguished by the oblique angle of their leaf base. This is a definitive element of its identification (several species are used).

Du Zhong leaves can be examined for their latex, just like the bark. The leaves are used for hypertension.

In Li Shi-Zhen's Ben Cao Gang Mu, the name for corn accompanied a drawing of Yi Yi Ren, because corn was not yet widely seen in China (it came from the New World).

If you take a walk through the Berkeley Botanical Gardens, be sure to look for:
wu tou (aconite)
shan zha, pictured above
ban zhi lian
huang qin
huang qi
mai dong
xiao hui xiang
xin yi
ma huang
bai ji (a key ingredient in Yunnan Baiyao)
pi pa ye
jie geng
yin yang huo
qian niu zi
mu ben man tuo luo
fu rong hua
du zhong
yi yi ren
ye jiao teng
tian nan xing
dong gua
qing xiang zi
xia ku cao
tong cao
qu mai

And many, many others... Go check out those botanical gardens right away if you visit the Bay Area!