title: Top-geoherbs of traditional Chinese medicine: common traits, quality characteristics and formation.
abstract: Top-geoherbs used in China are always featured with high qualities, and they grow in specified areas with specific environment. Recently, researches on top-geoherbs have attracted increasing attention in China and other countries. In order to have a thorough knowledge of top-geoherbs, this article reviews the concept, historical evolution, common trait and quality characteristics of top-geoherbs, and explains the forming mechanism including genetic mechanism and environmental mechanism. In addition, it introduces the influence of human factors on the quality of top-geoherbs. Finally, it proposes some problems that should be paid attention to in the researches on top-geoherbs.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Chinese Materia Medica, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing 100700, China. huangluqi@263.net
authors.forename: Luqi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Lanping
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: Chaoyi
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Qingjun
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Yuan
mesh_terms: D002681:China; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal / Q000494:pharmacology*; D017753:Ecosystem; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005843:Geography; D006801:Humans; D008516:Medicine, Chinese Traditional; D010641:Phenotype; D010946:Plants, Medicinal / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal