An expert review committee had been set up to help the smooth running of the project. The color illustration will include text description of the herbs, color photos of the original plant and raw and processed crude drug. Besides the color photos the PI had collected in the past, we also went to China from July 28 to August 2008 and visit related botanical gardens and cultivating bases to collect additional photos of the plants and crude drugs. We also visit Chinese herbal pharmacy, China Medical University Hospital, Sheng-Chang Pharmaceutical Company and Ching-Hsin herbal shop to shot color photos of the crude drugs. Currently we had collected 173 plant photos, 186 raw crude drugs and 198 processed crude drugs. Due to the time limit, some of the photos were still not available. As we understand that the Chinese Herbal Pharmacopeia will be revised and 50 to 100 items will be added. We like to recommend CCMP to sponsor another project next year to collect the color photos of all 250 or 300 items in the updated Pharmacopeia. Under additional committee review, the color illustration can then be published by CCMP. The illustration will be very helpful for the TCM communities.
