Encyclopedia of Traditional Chinese Medicines

xvAcknowledgementsWe, the authors, would like to express our gratitude to Dr. Georga W.A. Milne,former chief editor of JCICS of American Chemical Society. Dr. Milne originally urgedus to open a long-term project on TCM information study in 1993. From that time on,he has been supporting and helping us in many aspects.We would like to thank a number of Chinese scientists who are working on TCMrelated fields for their support, help and information. Among them, special thanks aregiven to Prof. Peigen Xiao (member of Chinese Engineering Academy, Institute ofMedicinal Plant Development, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking UnionMedical College), Pref. Guanhua Du (Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy ofMedical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College), Prof. Weiliang Wong (ChinaAcademy of Chinese Medical Sciences), and Prof. Luhua Lai (Peking University).We would like to thank the leaders and colleagues of the Institute of ProcessEngineering (IPE), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) for their understanding,support, and help. Particularly, thanks go to Prof. Mooson Kwauk (member of the CAS),Prof. Jinghai Li (member of the CAS, Vice president of CAS), Prof. Zhihong Xu, Prof.Zhiguo Su, Prof. Suojiang Zhang (Director of IPE), Prof. Yunfa Chen (Vice director ofIPE), Prof. Huizhou Liu, Prof. Zhangyuan Yang, Prof. Hao Wen, and Prof. Xiaoxia Li.We would like to thank our colleagues and students in the Molecule Design Groupin the Lab of Computer Chemistry (LCC) for their indispensable contributionsincluding information search, data collection, software development and technicalsupport, etc. Among them, special thanks are given to Mr. Wucheng Tang, Ms.Hongping Xu, Ms. Qi Li, Asso. Prof. Dianfang Cao, Dr. Xianfeng He, Dr. Min He, Dr.Jianfeng Pei, Dr. Tao Peng, Dr. Jing Lei, Dr. Aihua Xie, Dr. Chengzhong Liao, Dr.Aijun Lu, Dr. Bing Liu, Dr. Haibo Liu, and Master Yingxin Qiao.Cordial thanks are also given to Asso. Prof. Lanying Zhao, Asso. Prof. PeiwuWang and Asso. Prof. Yuanzhang Luo for their toilsome work on information collectionin the early stage of the project.Finally, we would like to give heartfelt thanks to our family members. Withouttheir complete and never-ending support, this book would never have been completed.