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.

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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.

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Photographs of Some Medical Plants in the Garden

Tetrastigma formosanum 三葉葡萄	Brugmansia suaveolens 大花曼陀羅	Pistia stratiotes 大萍	Cyclosoeus acuminate小毛蕨
Ranunculus japonicus 毛茛-花果	Marsilea minuta 田字草	Centella Asiatica 老公根	Porpidia sp. 岩石地衣
Epipremnum pinnatum 拎樹藤	Rubia linii 林氏茜草	Psilotum nudum 松葉蕨	Urtica thunbergiana 咬人貓-花
Procris laevigata 烏來麻	Dioscorea japonica 基隆山藥	Pseudodrynaria coronans and Ginkgo biloba 崖薑蕨銀杏林	Aeginetia indica 野菰
Aeginetia indica 野菰	Aeginetia indica 野菰	Pueraria lobata 野葛	Pueraria lobata 野葛
Lemna minor 朝萍	Phyllocium Pulchellum 牌錢樹	Monachosorm henryi 稀子蕨-孢子-芽	Bauhinia championii 菊花木
Bauhinia championii 菊花木	Bauhinia championii 菊花木	Leaf-shape Porpidia sp. 葉狀地衣	Broussonetia papyrifera 構樹
Broussonetia papyrifera 構樹	Ginkgo biloba 銀杏	Manihot utilissima 樹薯	Manihot utilissima 樹薯
Clerodendrum paniculatum 龍船花	Ehretia acuminata 嶺南白蓮茶	Paederia scandens 雞屎藤

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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

Daoist Traditions is one of a growing number of Chinese Medicine schools with medicinal herb gardens. The purpose is to give students the opportunity for hands-on contact with the medicinal plants introduced in Herbal Medicine studies. The campus gardens currently contain over 90 different medicinal plants and continue to be expanded each year.

First year students gain experience in the herb garden during the Introduction to Herb Cultivation course. In addition, students in the first and second years of the program are required to participate in the care of the herbal gardens. Through this service project students help cultivate a healing space for the college community to enjoy.

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Daoist Traditions College of Chinese Medical Arts was founded by a group of senior practitioners in the field of Chinese Medicine who have devoted themselves to the revival of classical teachings. Inspired by their studies with Jeffrey Yuen, 88th generation Daoist priest, they wish to help continue his work in restoring the ancient traditions by sharing their clinical experience and passion for Chinese Medical Arts.

382 Montford Avenue,  Asheville, NC 28801   (828) 225-3993
www.daoisttraditions.com

The Bristol Chinese Herb Garden was started in 2000 as a partnership between the University of Bristol Botanic Garden and the Register of Chinese Herbal Medicine.

With the move of the University Botanic Garden in 2006, an opportunity was taken to greatly enlarge the size and scope of the Chinese Herb Garden. It is still under development and you can see these changes by monitoring our “News from the garden” page, which will be updated every season.

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.

The garden is affiliated to several University and Botanic gardens in China which assist with information, especially with respect to our conservation programme.

Currently the garden is divided into several regions which reflect current interests.

Use class teaching garden
These plants are divided into ‘use class’ categories along the lines of traditional Chinese herbal medicine use. This area is designed for colleges of Chinese herbal medicine as a teaching aid.

Conservation bed
This display will highlight some of the plants which are currently under threat due to overuse and habitat loss. A separate section for endangered Himalayan herbs is planned in this area.

Research bed
Several research projects are in progress. These are currently connected with the comparison of Chinese and European species in the same genus. We are also investigating the adulteration of herbs (notably mu tong and fang ji) and their potential for cultivation in the UK to resolve this problem.

Peony bed

A variety of peony cultivars from the species of Peony suffructicosa, Peony vetchii, Peony obovata and Peony lactiflora will be used to illustrate flower and chemical comparisons. These species areimportant Chinese herb plants but there is also a conservation message as wild Peonies are in need of conservation.

Ferns in Medicine

Ferns have a role to play in Chinese medicine and as ‘famine foods’, but they also create an interesting collection which can be used to promote the use of this family in medicine on a wider stage.

The outdoor display is being extended into tropical habitats in the glasshouse displays. This will included many important plants used in Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine. It is planned to have a collection of Nelumbo nucifera (lotus) cultivars.

The existing European Herb Garden provides more facilities for herbal teaching and research potential. Combined with the course rooms on site, we are developing an advanced herbal research and teaching centre using the combined expertise of the University of Bristol and the herbal profession.

(This article originally appeared on the Finger Lakes School of Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine Website)

Through its Finger Lakes School of Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine, NYCC entered into the arena
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.

Currently, training involves handling and identifying dried plant parts imported from Asia. Unfortunately, exposure to dried herbs does not provide a full exposure to the entire personality of the living plant. Colors, flowers, shapes, tastes or aromas can provide clues to the medicinal actions of the plants that may not otherwise be apparent in a dried sample. Robert Newman, botanist, Asian plant aficionado, and Oriental medicine educator observes, “Trying to understand the nature, personality and characteristics of dried medicinal herbs without ever having seen the live plants is missing something essential. It’s not much different from kids not knowing where the food on their plate comes from. That’s a serious disconnect. We must make every effort possible to repair that relationship, to grow the live herb plants in order to gain a deeper connection to their properties.” With that in mind, the Finger lakes School of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine of NYCC developed an extensive and attractive Chinese medicinal herb garden on its Seneca Falls campus.

“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”
Marcus Tullius Cicero, Roman statesman, scholar & orator.

In the summer of 2004, the Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine faculty identified the importance of exposure to living plants, and established small herb garden plots on the north and south sides of the campus library. High Falls Gardens in Columbia County, NY (HFG, a farm-based, nonprofit educational organization, www.highfallsgardens.net ) donated over a dozen species of medicinal Chinese herbs that were planted and tended by students and faculty of the AOM department. The perennial species continue to flourish in those beds and their contributions to the depth of herbal education at NYCC is greatly appreciated by the MSAOM students.
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.

The Finger Lakes School of NYCC is one of only twoAOM programs in the Northeast to be chosen as a garden teaching site. As NYCC is located in a relatively rural location with a nearly 300 acre campus, the medicinal herb garden promises to expand into one of the most impressive Chinese medicinal plant collections located at a School of AOM.  It even includes multiple species of medicinal trees.
While the NYCC garden does not produce medicinal substances for use by patients, it is recognized
that expansion and exploration of domestically grown plants is tremendously important. More information about this national movement can be found at www.localherbs.org, the new website of the Medicinal Herb Consortium (MHC), the national network of farmers who grow Chinese medicinal herbs in the U.S. A March 2008 Acupuncture Today article describes the full context of the new website, which functions as a portal for Oriental Medicine practitioners to place orders for ecologically, domestically grown herbs. The MHC is documenting support from the profession of Oriental Medicine in order to capitalize their national effort to recruit, train and guarantee prices for the farmers. See: http://www.acupuncturetoday.com/mpacms/at/article.php?id=31676.

The physical garden site at NYCC was designed by AOM assistant professor, Jason Wright, and is located near the ponds behind the Academic 3 building. It is composed of eight raised, stone beds surrounding a circular flagstone patio. The beds and patio are designed to represent the ancient Chinese Ba Gua and Tai Ji symbols which embody the ever-transforming and dynamic balance of all natural forces. The concepts exemplified by these figures are fundamental to systems of martial arts, design, philosophy and medicine.

Finger Lakes School of Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine (of New York Chiropractic College)
is located at 2360 State Rte. 89, Seneca Falls, New York 13148

For more information about the school, please see their website

This article originally appeared on the ,Hong Kong Urban Renewal Authority website in Feb 2007

To see this article in Chinese “在中文：「百草園」啟用　活化中西區\”

Photo shows the officiating guests at the opening ceremony of Chinese Medicinal Herb Garden, Hong Kong (2007).

Chinese Herb Garden Revitalizes Central & Western District (Hong Kong)

Situated in its Queen Street project, the Chinese Herb Garden, a public open space now under the auspices of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, is the first theme park – blended with local characteristics – initiated by the Urban Renewal Authority (URA).

Mr Edward Cheng, Chairman of the URA Board said today (Friday) at the opening ceremony of this theme park, “The mission of the URA is to sustain the vibrancy, both economically and environmentally, of an old district, through its 4R Strategy, namely, Redevelopment, Rehabilitation, Revitalisation and pReservation. Building on the local culture and other characteristics, we flexibly link up our revitalization efforts with our projects for synergy reasons. The Chinese Herb Garden is a notable example of a redevelopment project of ours nicely enriched with an element of revitalization.”

Mr. Cheng added that Sheung Wan is a traditional area with a long history.  The development of Chinese medicine goes back to over 100 years, with numerous shops selling not just Chinese medicine, but also preserved marine products, birds’ nests and other much-sought-after medicinal stuff. It was for this reason that the URA made an attempt to galvanize local efforts in all concerned quarters with a view to coming up with something that would best reflect this unique district character in its project. This happily culminated in the current theme park in the site boundaries of URA’s Queen Street project.  Known as Chinese Herb Garden, this public open space promotes Chinese medicine education on the one hand, and highlights the unique traditional character of Sheung Wan on the other.

The park occupies some 1,300 square metres. Named after “Sheng Non”, commonly regarded as the god of Chinese medicine, the park has in addition to a statue of Sheng Non,  some 100 species of Chinese herbs planted for public display in five distinct areas, each with species of broadly similar herbal features. The descriptions of the various species are augmented by a picture-rich display board on one side of the park, all designed to stimulate interest in, and to promote understanding of, this fascinating aspect of Chinese culture.  Indeed there is every prospect of the theme park becoming a must for tourists.

Carrying a price tag of $1.3 million for construction, the Chinese Herb Garden took over two years to complete.

“The project was possible only because of the immense contribution made by our partners: the Central and Western District Council, the Hong Kong Chinese Medicine Merchants Association, the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, the Architectural Services Department and District Office (Central & Western). I take this opportunity to salute all of them,” said Mr Cheng.

Mr. Cheng added that the URA will continue to embark on revitalization projects in Sheung Wan in order to promote quality living.

Present at the opening ceremony today were Mr. Thomas CHOW, Director of Leisure and Cultural Services Department; Mr. C H YUE, Director of Architectural Services Department; Mr. CHAN Tak Chor, Chairman of Central & Western District Council; Mr. Edward CHENG, Chairman of Urban Renewal Authority; Mr. LEE Ying Sang, Chairman of Hong Kong Chinese Medicine Merchants Association; Mr. Billy LAM, Managing Director of Urban Renewal Authority; Ms. Eliza YAU, District Officer (Central & Western); Mr. YEUNG Wai Foon, Chairman of Working Group on Culture, Leisure and Sports Affairs of the Central & Western District Council; Professor FUNG Yik Bun, Advisor to Chinese Herb Garden; and Mr. CHAN Lap Yip, General Manager (Marketing) of Hong Kong Tourism Board.

Jin Yin Hua 金銀花 growing at the Chinese Medicinal Herb Garden, Hong Kong

China is home to a greater diversity of the world’s plants than any other region of the planet. Considering that herbal medicine is a cornerstone of Chinese medicine, the relationship between human populations, market demands and the ecosystems in which Chinese herbs grow warrants closer examination. Can Chinese and global ecosystems support the increased demand of herbal medicine as it is harvested and sold now, largely unregulated? This article explores some of the current challenges we face with Chinese herbal medicine today, at the intersection of conservation biology and international trade of medicinal plants, and the various regulations and guidelines that will ensure, quality, long-term availability of both wild and cultivated Chinese herbs.

To continue reading, link to the PDF here.

Or pick up a copy of the California Journal of Oriental Medicine (CJOM) Fall/Winter 2009 issue.

HerbalEGram: Volume 6, Number 12, December 2009

Chinese Herb Garden Promotes

Sustainable Use of Medicinal Asian Plants

As the global market for Chinese herbal medicine continues to rapidly expand, some Asian medicinal plants are increasingly faced with over-harvest, habitat loss, effects of climate change, and other sustainability challenges—perhaps moreso than many herbal practitioners and consumers are aware. A newly-established nonprofit, called Chinese Herb Garden (CHG), intends to disseminate information about such plants’ conservation needs and promote the sustainable use of Asian medicinal flora.

Read more…  (link below)

Chinese Herb Garden Promotes Sustainable Use of Medicinal Asian Plants

Our mission is to

promote the sustainable use of Asian medicinal flora.

Please sign up for our mailing list (to the right).

Thanks for visiting!

www.chineseherbgarden.org

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