Synonymy

The synonymy traces continuity of drug use across different naming traditions and languages.  It links common botanicals used in the different traditions, and provides regional data about their names and wild propagation. 

 

Drawing on 24 modern drug dictionaries of Chinese and Malay medicine (Link)

it matches the botanical names found in these dictionaries. Where agreed scientific terms for those plants have changed, it provides the current accepted name.

 

It also provides scientific synonyms used for those plants in literature of the past, allowing for comprehensive searches on the plant in existing literature.

 

Where available, it provides regional data on wild propagation, as well as on naming and dialect conventions.

 

Contains XXXX Chinese primary and alternate names and XXXXX Malay names for medicines.

 

It allows for visual exploration of the drug name data.

 

It links the drug terms to other online databases on plant botany, biodiversity, and plant biochemistry.

 

Conventions in the Database:

Primary Name 主名: The name used in the header of entries for drug dictionaries or bencao literature. 

 

Alternate Name 別名: Alternative name for the same drug within that language.

 

Provenance 出處: The source which first mentions a given drug name in the tradition.  Where available, the author name and publication dates are included. In future, author birthplace will also be available. This allows some better understanding of where and when the name emerged.

 

Language/Region: Where regionality of terms can be identified, whether local dialects, other languages or region-specific usage, this is indicated.

 

Name Status: 

Accepted: A match was found linking the published name and a current accepted botanical name.  The accepted botanical name is provided.

Not Accepted: A match was found between the published name, and existing botanical names, but the match was weak.  The published name from the original source is provided.

Not Matched: No match was found between the published name and records at Kew.  The published name from the original source is provided.

0: No scientific name provided

As Published: No match was found between the published name and existing records at Kew, or where there was a match, its correlation was weak.