How to cite this database

Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Ethnobotany of China database. http://ethnobotany.cn/ (version 20261015; accessed 2026-10-15).

When citing an individual formula, please also cite the original source and page address given in the “Citation” box of the formula page.

Source books

Records in this database are structured facts (species, uses, formula composition, provenance, etc.) extracted from the publications below, and every record cites its source. Long verbatim passages from books are not redistributed in bulk downloads. The tables are compiled automatically from the records in the database.

Flora treatments

Economic Flora of China

Historical formulas: modern compilations used for extraction

Formula ingredients: reference for drug properties

Plant use records: sources

Classical sources of the historical formulas (top 40 of 1270)

《圣济总录》11,535 《太平圣惠方》9,071 《普济方》5,786 《医方类聚》1,562 《圣惠》1,450 《辨证录》1,242 《幼幼新书》1,235 《备急千金要方》1,135 《外台秘要》1,127 《鸡峰普济方》1,106 《杨氏家藏方》995 《御药院方》698 《魏氏家藏方》638 《万病回春》613 《古今医统大全》610 《古今医鉴》608 《医学入门》554 《仙拈集》546 《丹台玉案》517 《小儿卫生总微论方》506 《仁斋直指方论》502 《太平惠民和济局方》495 《医宗金鉴》474 《寿世保元》451 《症因脉治》446 《疡医大全》432 《世医得效方》422 《类编朱氏集验方》420 《杂病源流犀烛》402 《三因极一病证方论》387 《赤水玄珠全集》372 《医略六书》363 《千金翼方》353 《景岳全书》351 《外科正宗》324 《博济方》317 《济阳纲目》314 《疮疡经验全书》305 《医心方》300 《千金》300

Other sources

• 7,617 bibliographic records of ethnobotanical papers compiled from Web of Science exports (abstracts are copyright of the publishers and are not included in downloads).
• 1,424 records from the institute's own field survey of wild economic plants in the Himalaya–Hengduan region, with voucher numbers.
• Name reconciliation: World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP, version 2026-06-04, CC BY 4.0); WFO Plant List (version 2026-06, CC0); Catalogue of Life China 2026 (plants).
• Use categories are mapped to the Economic Botany Data Collection Standard (Cook 1995); the Himalaya survey is also provided as a Darwin Core Archive.

Copyright

Content from books is handled on the principle of “extract facts, cite the source, do not redistribute the text”: factual information such as species names, use categories, formula composition and provenance is recorded in structured form, while long verbatim passages (formula explanations, usage, flora treatments, paper abstracts) are shown on the website for reference only and are excluded from bulk downloads. Rights holders who have concerns about the use of their works are invited to contact us, and we will respond promptly.

Data Use Agreement

This dataset is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
本数据集采用知识共享 署名 4.0 国际许可协议（CC BY 4.0）授权。

Attribution / 署名：Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Ethnobotany of China database. http://ethnobotany.cn/

DATA USE AGREEMENT / 数据使用协议

1. The data may be used only by the applicant for the non-commercial research project described in the approved application.
   数据仅限申请人用于获批申请中所述的非商业科研项目。
2. The data must not be redistributed, published in bulk, or shared with third parties.
   不得再分发、整体公开或提供给第三方。
3. The data must not be used for patent applications, commercial product development or any form of biopiracy.
   不得用于专利申请、商业产品开发或任何形式的生物剽窃。
4. Publications must cite the database and the original sources, and acknowledge the knowledge holders.
   发表成果须引用本数据库与原始文献，并致谢知识持有者。
5. Approval expires on the date stated in the approval e-mail; delete local copies when the project ends.
   授权在批准邮件所述日期到期；项目结束后请删除本地副本。
6. Traditional knowledge in this dataset is governed by the CARE Principles and the spirit of the Nagoya Protocol.
   本数据集中的传统知识遵循 CARE 原则与《名古屋议定书》精神。

Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences — http://ethnobotany.cn/

Ethics statement

• The ethnomedicinal and folk knowledge in this database is traditional knowledge of the communities concerned. We manage it according to the CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance (Collective benefit, Authority to control, Responsibility, Ethics): the website is openly browsable so that communities and the public can access it, while bulk data are released only after review, for non-commercial research.
• The review process and use restrictions of the controlled tier also follow the spirit of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Nagoya Protocol on access to traditional knowledge associated with genetic resources and benefit sharing; use of the data for patent applications or commercial development is prohibited.
• Himalaya survey data are given at the level of county survey sites only and contain no personal information about informants.
• Website access logs do not store raw IP addresses, only hashes with a salt that changes daily; they are used for aggregate statistics and kept for 180 days.