On creating specialized botanical gardens of traditional Chinese medicinal plants

A session of the Fifth Forum on Traditional Chinese Medicine was devoted to discussion of program “Standards for creating botanical gardens of traditional Chinese medicinal plants”. This program aims to ensure that in the very near future both special collections and specialized botanical gardens of traditional Chinese medicinal plants will be created in China and in such countries like Brunei, Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines. The main trend at already existing and new botanical gardens is creation of ethnobotanical corners of culture and ethnomedicine of individual peoples of each country, and / or special expositions on the folk (traditional) medicine of small nations (ethnobotany) of China. Currently, the collection, preservation and analysis of empirical data on the use of plants as medicinal by various nations are of paramount importance and not only in China, but also in many countries of the world. By participating in this program, the participants undertake to preserve and develop the culture of traditional Chinese medicine. Given that from 20 to 90% of ethnic Chinese live in the ASEAN countries, all of them actively operate and develop networks of traditional Chinese medicine and wild-growing and cultivated medicinal plants are widely used. This circumstance served as the basis for the unification of these countries (China and ASEAN) in order to preserve not only medicinal plants, but also knowledge in the field of their preparation and application, as well as expanding the experience in applying new advances in traditional Chinese medicine to human health.