AWARDEE OF MEDICAL SCIENCES AND MATERIA MEDICA PRIZE

XU GUOJUN

Abstract

Professor Xu Guojun, the academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences, noted pharmacognosist, was born in Nov. 1922 in Changshu, Jiangsu. His undergraduate training was in pharmacy at National College of Pharmacy. He has been working in China Pharmaceutical University for more than 50 years, and devoting himself to the authentication, quality evaluation, resources exploitation of crude drugs and the development of pharmacognostical science in China.
Professor Xu is the pioneer scientist in the field of microscopic identification of Chinese crude and patent medicines. He and his colleagues published the paper “The Key of 101 species of Powdered Crude Drugs" in 1951 and the monograph “Microscopic Identification of Powdered Chinese Medicinal Materials"covering 380 species of most commonly used Chinese crude drugs in 1986. The latter was the footstone of powdered pharmacognosy in China. The authentication of 9 aromatic crude drugs, such as Rhizoma Hierochloes Odaratae, Rhizoma Alpiniae Officinarum in No. 1 Han-Dynasty Tomb of Mawangdui excavated from Changsha, China, was the first record in the medicinal archaeological history and was highly praised and awarded by China National Science Conference in 1972.
Microscopic examination of total ingredients in a compound powdered preparation “Lingying Shayao" broke the ice for analysis of Chinese patent medicines which had been a mysterious field before Prof. Xu's experiment. Subsequently the microscopical standards of more than one hundred patent medicines have been accepted by the Chinese Pharmacopoeia since Edition 1977 and played an important role for quality control over compound preparations produced from powdered herbs.
During 1986-1995, as the head of South-China Research Group, Professor Xu and his colleagues conducted the National Key Project for Science and Technology Development: “Species systematization and quality evaluation of commonly used Chinese traditional drugs." In this project, the authentication, macroscopic/microscopic identification, isolation of chemical constituents, qualitative/quantitative analysis and biological assay and other related aspects of 112 crude drugs, mostly multi-originated, were investigated using new technologies of the day. The study has been appraised as a landmark for research of Chinese medicinal materials and was awarded the 1st Prize of State Science and Technology Advancement of China. Meanwhile, 27 doctorate and 40 master graduates have been trained, many of them are outstanding young scientists in China. 
Professor Xu and his colleagues published more than 330 papers and about 60 monographs and textbooks. In the 1950s, he edited the first text book of Pharmacognosy about Chinese traditional medicines and ended the history of depending on foreign textbooks. Another book Materia Medica published in 1960 was highly praised domestically and abroad, has become a classical reference book for the authentication of CTM. Professor Xu also recieved various awards and prizes and became the first person in the field of Pharmacognosy.