Tripterygium wilfordii Hook. f. - how a traditional Taiwanese medicinal plant found its way to the West.

Tripterygium wilfordii is regarded as a promising traditional medicinal plant showing several, mainly antiinflammatory and cytotoxic activities. It contains unusal natural products currently under investigation as lead compounds. The species has been well known in Traditional Chinese Medicine but was recognized in Western science as an insecticide not before the 1930's and as a promising medicinal plant in the 1960's. The name refers to Charles Wilford, employed as a botanical collector at Kew Botanical Gardens, London from 1857-1860. He collected the plant on the island of Taiwan, formerly called Formosa, in June 1858, unfortunately without reporting its medicinal use in the country of origin. The plant was named according to the Linnaean system before 1862 what initially concealed its medicinal properties which had to be re-discovered in the second half of the 20th century.