TCM Herbology

Jeffrey Pang, L.Ac.
Department Chair

While acupuncture treats disharmony and disease from the exterior of the body, herbal medicine works from the body's interior to support normal Qi, Blood and Fluids. TCM herbal medicine corrects irregular patterns and expels abnormal influences. Following the lead of modern Chinese medical schools, Five Branches University places knowledge of herbs and prescription herbal formulas alongside acupuncture at the heart of TCM education and clinical training.

Chinese herbology is the world's most sophisticated medical herbal system. The curriculum includes extensive training in single herbs including identification, categorization and clinical use of the Traditional Chinese herbal pharmacopoeia. The program continues with 3 semesters of in-depth study of TCM Formulas as well as TCM Dietetics, TCM Patent Herbs and Herb-Pharmacy interactions. Students receive a solid working knowledge of more than 350 individual herbs and more than 200 classical and modern formulas. Advanced classes also show students how to modify and enhance the classical formulas in response to specific variants in a patient's diagnosed condition. All herb classes are taught using the Pinyin names of herbs.

Herbal-Pharmaceutical Drugs Interactions

MHB 700 0.5 Units    8 Hours

This course addresses the increasing concern among the medical community, including TCM practitioners who prescribe medicinal herbs, regarding toxic biomedical interactions between pharmaceutical drugs and natural products, such as Chinese medicinal herbs. The course reviews the biomedical nature of herbs and the potential interaction between them and commonly used pharmaceutical drugs and nutritional supplements. The course includes the critical analysis of literature and research reports of herb/drug interactions.

Prerequisite: MHB 310, TCM Herbology III; MWM 410, Pathophysiology II; MWM 620, Pharmacology