ABSTRACT
Chinese medicine, with a span of 5000 years, forms an integral part of Chinese culture. The beginnings of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) date back to time immemorial, long before written records appeared. Shen-Nong Materia Medica is one of the world's earliest written records of natural history and medicinal knowledge to provide crucial perspectives on herbal application and safety. The Shen-Nong Materia Medica serves as the prototype of all Bencao versions to follow. The first official pharmacopoeia of TCM appeared during the Tang Dynasty and is known as "Tang Bencao". The botanical classification system in TCM was largely and artificially based on general features of the plant, such as gross morphology, growing habitat, and organoleptic properties, as presented in the Bancao literature. The Japanese species of star anise contains potentially toxic ingredients such as anisatin and the related compound, shikimin, which cause severe inflammation of the kidney, urinary tract, and digestive organs.
