[A discussion on the reason of differences between property and flavor of Chinese Materia Medica of ancient and modern times].

The property and flavor (four properties of cold, hot, warm, cool and five flavors of spicy, sweet, bitter, sour, salty) which marked the function and efficacy of Chinese Materia Medica had different records in TCM ancient literature, even being completely opposite. By analyzing the reason, it mainly involves such aspects as different properties of soil and water, different harvesting seasons, incorrect nomenclature not corresponding to reality, different angles, double properties and flavors, former mistakes and latter corrections, different processing methods etc.