Pharmacognosy is a science that applies the knowledge of materia medica, botany, zoology, chemistry, pharmacology and traditional Chinese medicine to study the name, source, production, identification, chemical composition and medical use of postgraduate drugs (medicinal materials). The research contents of pharmacognosy include: quality evaluation of Chinese medicinal materials, materia medica, resource development, cell tissue culture and so on. Pharmacognosy has gradually extended to applied phytochemistry, phytochemical taxonomy, biochemistry, cell biology, plant physiology, genetics and other disciplines, and explored the source, classification, resource development, production, quality evaluation, biosynthesis, efficacy, pharmacology and toxicity of natural drugs.
At present, the research objects of natural medicinal chemistry and pharmacognosy in China are mainly traditional Chinese medicine and folk herbs, including animal medicine and marine medicine. These two disciplines intersect with each other, and life science research techniques are gradually introduced, such as screening the activity of natural drug components by biochip and studying the DNA of drug species.