Datura en Li Shizhen

Li Shizhen left his hometown to the north looking for the jimsonweed flowers. Finally he found it, the flower with a sole stem as high as four to five chi, leaves like eggplant leaves and flowers resembling the morning glories. The jimsonweed flower bloomed in the morning and closed up at night. He tasted it himself in order to know the flower’s properties. According to modern pharmacology, the jimsonweed flower contains effective factors to activate the brain and medulla through the central nerve system, as well as lull the nerve endings or parasympathetic nerves.

Li Shizhen (1518 - 1593) (jiaxiang: Hubei, Huanggang, Qizhou, Qichun 湖北黄冈蕲春蕲州), uit de Ming-dynastie, was één van de grootste dokters en apothekers in de Chinese geschiedenis. Zijn belangrijkste bijdrage aan de kruidengeneeskunde was de Bencao Gangmu, compendium of Materia Medica.  Zijn boek beschrijft 1895 medicijnen  met 1100 illustraties en 11.000 voorschriften. Hij voltooide zijn Ben Cao Gang Mu in 1587.

Li Shizhen and Compendium of Materia Medica
 Li Shizhen was a great medical and pharmaceutical expert. He was born in the reign of Emperor Zhengde of the Ming Dynasty (1518) in Qichun, Hubei Province. Compendium of Materia Medica, revised and compiled by him, is a great collection of traditional Chinese herbal medicine. It is called  the Great Pharmacopoeia in the East¡±.