THE EURO-ASIAN TRADE AND MEDICINAL USAGE OF RADIX CHINAE IN THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD (CA. 1535-1800)1535-1800 年間，歐亞貿易與茯苓的醫學用途
This article investigates the circulation and medicinal use of Radix Chinae (“China root,” tu fu ling), a rhizome of the Smilacaceae family, within the context of Euro-Asian interactions between approximately 1535 and 1800. It argues that “China root” was not a mere botanical curiosity: it constitut...
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| Published in: | Review of Culture |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Articles |
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Instituto Cultural de Macau
October 2006
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| Online Access: | https://www.icm.gov.mo/rc/viewer/pdfViewerParts/40020/3739 |
| Summary: | This article investigates the circulation and medicinal use of Radix Chinae (“China root,” tu fu ling), a rhizome of the Smilacaceae family, within the context of Euro-Asian interactions between approximately 1535 and 1800. It argues that “China root” was not a mere botanical curiosity: it constituted a product of steady demand, often profitable for mercantile networks and pharmaceutical intermediaries, whose relevance derived both from therapeutic expectations and from the constant reconfiguration of names and identities attributed to the material (variations in Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, French, German, and Arabic/Persian terminology, as well as confusions with galangal, ginseng, and ginger).
Methodologically, the study articulates a historical-philological analysis of early modern European medical sources and glossaries (treatises, lexicons, and therapeutic recipes) with a reading of botanical descriptions and commercial circuits referenced by travelers and authors of pan-European circulation. The results show that, in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century texts, Radix Chinae was used above all for dermatological afflictions, infectious processes, and pain, with internal administration prescribed as a sudorific, in addition to applications associated with hepatosplenic conditions and symptoms related to syphilis. It concludes that the product’s trajectory, until its decline in the early nineteenth century, evidences the coevolution of commerce, natural knowledge, and therapeutic classification on a Euro-Asian scale. |
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| ISSN: | 1682-1106 |