Abstract
There are numerous herbal medicinal markets in China where people trade fresh, dried, or processed herbs. The Chinese government has recognized 17 huge herbal medicinal marketplaces throughout the country. Three markets, Anguo, Kunming, and Yulin, were investigated through ethnobotanical methods. In total, 210 vendors and 135 buyers had been interviewed. The results revealed that rich species diversity of medicinal plants existed in the targeted markets. Common and massive medicinal plants traded in the three markets had been presented, including 35 medicinal materials from more than 40 plant species. There is rich traditional knowledge of medicinal plants in the investigated markets. The vendors in Kunming market maintained the richest traditional knowledge. The rich market-based traditional knowledge of herbal medicines is probably related to the biological and cultural diversity in the region where local market is located. Medicinal plants and associated traditional knowledge from local communities with different linguistic groups will highly enrich herbal diversity in the markets.
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Acknowledgments
We are very grateful to the vendors and buyers in the three marketplaces, Anguo, Kunming, and Yulin, who provided valuable information about herbal medicines. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31761143001, 31870316, and 31161140345), the Key Laboratory of Ethnomedicine (Minzu University of China) of Ministry of Education of China (KLEM-ZZ201806), Minzu University of China (Collaborative Innovation Center for Ethnic Minority Development, yldxxk201819), Ministry of Education of China, and State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs of China (B08044).
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Ji, Y., Fang, Q., Liu, S., Zhang, B., Long, C. (2020). Herbal Medicinal Markets in China: An Ethnobotanical Survey. In: Khasim, S.M., Long, C., Thammasiri, K., Lutken, H. (eds) Medicinal Plants: Biodiversity, Sustainable Utilization and Conservation. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-1636-8_24
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