中药不同于植物药 The differences between traditional Chinese medicine and botanical medicine

中药与植物药的主要差别如下：

The differences between traditional Chinese medicine and botanical medicine:

（1）中医药有系统而又完整的理论，有浩瀚的文献，象《黄帝内经》《神农本草经》《伤寒论》等古典医籍，遣方用药有规律可循，象四气五味五行等规律；西方植物药仅凭零散的经验使用。

(1) Traditional Chinese medicine has systematic and complete theories, with vast literature, such as 《Huangdi Neijing》, 《Shen Nong's Materia Medica》, 《Treatise on Febrile Diseases》 and other classical medical books. The prescriptions and medicines are regular and follow, such as four Qi, five flavors and five elements Laws; Western botanicals are used only based on scattered experience.

（2）中医药早在两三千年前就建立了一定的医事制度，是一个历史悠久的行业， 是经过了几千年人体临床实践总结出来的切实可行的用药；西方植物药在近几十年之前从未形成过行业。

(2) Traditional Chinese medicine has established a certain medical system as early as two or three thousand years ago. It is an industry with a long history. It is a practical medicine summed up after thousands of years of human clinical practice; Western botanicals have been used in recent decades. There has never been an industry before.

（3）中药讲究炮制，讲究药物四性五味和归经，象中药经过几千年的经验总结发展了不同的炮制方法， 有些中药经过炮制后改变药物药性和解除药物的毒性；西方植物药仅应用生药，不懂炮制后药性之改变。

(3) Traditional Chinese medicine pays attention to processing, focusing on the four properties and five flavors of the medicine and the meridian return. After thousands of years of experience, different processing methods have been developed in traditional Chinese medicine. After processing, some Chinese medicines change the properties of the medicine and relieve the toxicity of the medicine; Western botanicals only The application of crude drugs does not understand the changes in the properties of the drugs after processing.

（4）中药多用复方，讲究君臣佐使。中药通过煎煮熬制，使不同的药物在共同的作用下形成的不同药性以治疗不同的疾病；西方植物药一般用单味药，偶用复方，多则四味，亦无君臣佐使之说。

(4) Compound prescriptions are often used in traditional Chinese medicines, and the monarchs and ministers, Assistants and Guides are advisable. Traditional Chinese medicine is made by decocting, so that different medicines can form different me., decimal properties under the common action to treat different diseases; Western botanicals generally use single medicine, occasionally use compound medicine, and often have four flavors, and there is no such thing as a monarch.

（5）几千年来，中医药一直是中国唯一的医疗保健体系， 让中华民族生生不息，直至今天，无论大病小病，急性病慢性病，均可依赖中医药；而西方植物药仅用于可以自我诊疗的轻浅病症。在“回归自然”思潮影响下，西方各国于上世纪80年代开始重视植物药的研究与开发。但是，走的依然是西药路子。在采用筛选法开发西药越来越困难的情况下，西方开始从植物里寻找有效成分来开发新西药，这也是植物提取物在西方兴起的原因之一。由此也不难看出，不能把植物提取物当作中药现代化。

(5) For thousands of years, traditional Chinese medicine has been the only healthcare system in China, allowing the Chinese nation to live endlessly. To this day, regardless of serious or minor illnesses, acute or chronic diseases, they can rely on Chinese medicine; while western botanicals are only used Mild and shallow diseases that can be diagnosed and treated by themselves. Under the influence of the "return to nature" trend of thought, western countries began to attach importance to the research and development of botanicals in the 1980s. However, it is still the path of western medicine. When it is becoming more and more difficult to develop Western medicines by screening methods, the West has begun to find effective ingredients from plants to develop new Western medicines. This is also one of the reasons for the rise of plant extracts in the West. It is not difficult to see that plant extracts cannot be modernized as traditional Chinese medicine.