Textual Research on the Legal Medicinal Plants of Araliaceae

OBJECTIVE To clarify the origin of the legal medicinal plants of Araliaceae which was made some chaos because of the morphological similarity, more transition types and change of classification system. METHODS Query for Chinese crude drug standards of state, various provinces and autonomous regions to find out the species with confusion in species from Araliaceae, and made textual research on plant taxonomy, classification groups species identification and so on. RESULTS In Chinese crude drug standards of state, various provinces and autonomous regions, it contained 10 genera, 32 species, 9 varietas original plants from Araliaceae, including 12 species without confusion in species identification and Chinese or Latin names, 20 species and 9 varietas with confusion of Chinese and Latin names due to the change of classification system and taxonomic grade or incorrect species identification. CONCLUSION Although there are some confusion in the origin of legal medicinal plants from Araliaceae, especially in Acanthopanax Miq., Panax Linn. and Aralia Linn., the problems are clarified and reasonable solutions are put forward to make the legal medicinal plants in Araliaceae clear after textual research.