Traditional Chinese pharmacy has had a history of thousands of years. The scientific therapeutic effects of traditional Chinese materia medica have attracted great attention both at home and abroad. In the recent 20–30 years there has appeared a tendency to "return to nature" owing to the toxic and side effects of chemical medicines and the drug-induced diseases caused by them. On the other hand, the traditional Chinese medicine and pharmacy have attracted more attention because of the difficulty in searching for and synthesizing new compounds. Only by modernization of traditional Chinese materia medica can its use become global. The modernization of traditional Chinese materia medica means studying the theories and the basic content of traditional Chinese pharmacy applying the knowledge of modern science and technology. The information on Chinese materia medica should be expressed in modern scientific indexes, terms, and include standardized methods of quality measurement and modernized forms of medicines. The task of higher education of traditional Chinese pharmacy is to train high-level personnel to fulfill the modernization of traditional Chinese pharmacy.
