Zhong Yao Cai

Zhong Yao Cai (中药材) is not the name of a single medicinal substance but a general Chinese-language term meaning "Chinese medicinal materials" or "crude Chinese drugs" — the broad category that encompasses all plant, animal, and mineral materia medica used in traditional Chinese medicine. The phrase appears throughout pharmacopoeial literature as a heading or category label rather than as a specific item. Because no single species, organ, or substance corresponds to this title, no botanical description can be supplied. The record follows the unidentifiable null-pattern; downstream curation should either reassign the entry to its intended specific substance or remove the placeholder.