Traditional Chinese Medicine Research

The Tennessee Center for Botanical Medicine Research (TCBMR) is collaborating with a number of institutions and universities in China to develop new drugs (pharmaceuticals) from plants with medicinal properties that have been historically utilized in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).  Our two major collaborators are the Guangxi Botanical Garden of Medicinal Plants (GBGMP) in Nanning, China and the Institute of Medicinal Plant Development (IMPLAD) in Beijing, China.  The GBGMP is the largest plant depository in China and houses over 7,400 plants, which have been used in TCM.  The IMPLAD specializes in the purification, identification and characterization of the active components from a number of the specialized plants used in TCM.  Both the GBGMP and IMPLAD provides the TCBMR with extracts and pure compounds to screen for bioactivities that may lead to new drugs.