Li Shizhen

The great pharmacologist Li Shizhen of the Ming Dynasty developed the science of materia medica to a new height. n his book Compendium of Materia Medica, he gave a detailed account of the properties, flavor, origin, shape, way of collecting, process of preparation, pathological study and prescription of each species of herbal medicine. Li corrected many mistakes in the discrimination of drugs, which had appeared in past works. He classified herbal medicines into 16 groups according to their natural origin and properties. Within each of these groups are subdivided into 60 sub-groups, making a creative contribution to drug classification.