The traditional medicines of China include traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), medicines of minority groups and folk herbal medicine. TCM has been the mainstream medicine and therefore the representative of traditional medicines of China due to the dominance of the Han culture in a considerably long historical period and its fairly high academic value till today. The medicines of minority groups refer to traditional medicines other than TCM created by people of minority groups. There are 55 minority groups in China. From remote antiquity to modern times, they have ceaselessly created and pursued their own healing skills and methods to alleviate their sufferings endured in different environments of survival and development.
    The medicines of minority groups all have their own cultural backgrounds and theoretical systems and their own unique resources of medicine and medical skills and their own laws and characteristics. They are not branches of TCM, but brothers and sisters of TCM. The Tibetan medicine, for instance, is a rare academic area with its own knowledge about the physiology and pathology of people on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, its own methods of treatment and its own utilization of local natural resources of medicine. It also occupies a special position in the traditional medicines in the world. If we say that TCM is a great treasure house, medicines of minority groups are, too, a treasure house of equal importance.
    The medicines of the 55 minority groups in China have developed quite unevenly. Due to differences in accumulation and losses in history, the levels of inheritance and development also vary greatly. From the end of the 1970s, an overall survey and systematic sorting have been conducted on about more than 30 schools of medicine. They include medicines of Tibetans, Mongolians, Uygurs, Thais, Zhuang’s, Miaos, Yaos, Tujias and Koreans. The Tibetan, Mongolian, Uygur and Thai medicines are backed by a complete system of clinics, teaching and research, with a well-trained contingent of professionals.
    According to statistics from the China Society for the Study of Medicines of Ethnic Minorities, there are more than 600 patent drugs, more than 120 pharmaceutical factories, with a combined annual sales revenue of 2.5 billion yuan. This includes more than 40 manufacturers of Tibetan medicine, more than 70 manufacturers of Miao medicine. From the very beginning of this year, experts have selected more than 180 most representative projects from among patent drugs of minority groups for popularization.