China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan
中國醫藥大學
This article was originally published on the China Medical University website.
History of Medicinal Herb Garden
There is a beautiful and useful medicinal herb garden in this university. The garden was established by Professor Wei-Song Gan in 1965, it is the first garden designed to collect medicinal plants in medicine universities in Taiwan. In 1993, in order to continually develop the unique characteristic for this school, the university further organized a committee to govern this garden. The dean of this department is one of the committee members. In 1996, a book, the guide manual of the medicinal herb garden, was written by the chairman Chao-Lin Kuo to help students to learn the distinguishing of the medicinal plants.
Introduction of the Garden
There are more than 500 various medicinal plants in the garden, including 130 families, 400 genera, most of them are traditional Chinese medicinal plants and folk medicinal plants. The whole garden is divided into two parts of an open district and a culture district, for teaching and visit.
Photographs of Some Medical Plants in the Garden
School of Chinese Medicine Resources, China Medical University ,
No.91 Hsueh-Shih Road,Taichung, Taiwan 40402, R.O.C
Tel: 886-4-2205-3366 ext 5201
The Chinese Herb Garden aims to provide a comprehensive living collection of plants used in Chinese Herbal medicine. These are to be employed in teaching of herbal students and for research by the University and the herbal profession into the cultivation and chemistry of the plants.
of herbal medicine education. Masters degree students in the Master of Science in Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine program receive extensive training in the field of traditional Chinese herbal medicine. Didactic and clinical courses cover the energetic nature and medicinal action of over four hundred individual herbs, as well as the basics of selecting, modifying and developing appropriate herbal formulas consistent with the pattern of disharmony a patient demonstrates.
Student Garden programs have been established at several of the Colleges of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine in the U.S., as a means to enhance herbal studies and to provide a contact point for the local community. High Falls Gardens has been obtaining funding to create or improve the Student Gardens, and has been offering Asian medicinal plant seeds and botany instruction. In 2006, the High Falls Gardens Fund, under the auspices of the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation in Great Barrington, MA, was awarded a $200,000 grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation for a three-year program, Botanical Studies for Oriental Medicine. “This new funding will help U.S. students and practitioners of Oriental Medicine get to know where their herbs come from, how they are grown and who grows them,” said HFG director Jean Giblette. “This program will provide them with vital knowledge that will build their capacity to evaluate the qualities of domestically grown medicinal herbs, to communicate their requirements to growers, and to help deepen their patients’ connections to nature and sources of nutrition.” This grant allowed the program to expand to 15 teaching sites based at graduate colleges of Oriental Medicine in various locations around the country. Each site will collaborate with local farmers, botanical gardens, university and Extension specialists to develop resources for the students.
While the NYCC garden does not produce medicinal substances for use by patients, it is recognized
