Contents Foreword Chapter 1 Introduction 1 Section 1 Background 2 Section 2 Definition of Medicinal Plant Conservation 10 Section 3 Contents and Approaches of Research on Medicinal Plant Conservation 14 Section 4 Significance of Research on Medicinal Plant Conservation 18 Section 5 Visions 24 Main References 26 Chapter 2 Risks of Loss of Medicinal Plant Species and Their Efficacy 27 Section 1 Medicinal Plant Species and Their Efficacy 28 Section 2 Loss of Medicinal Plant Species and Wild Stock 31 Section 3 Development and Loss of Efficacy 40 Main References 48 Chapter 3 Hypotheses Related to the Origin of Medicinal Plants 51 Section 1 Plants and Medicinal Plants 51 Section 2 Phylogeography and Evolution of Medicinal Plants 66 Section 3 Theories on the Centers of Origin of Medicinal Plants 81 Main References 90 Chapter 4 Principles of Medicinal Plant Conservation 92 Section 1 Principles of Genetics in Medicinal Plant Conservation 93 Section 2 Principles of Ecology in Medicinal Plant Conservation 107 Section 3 Principles of Medicinal Plant Conservation and Domestication 116 Section 4 Principles of Conservation Economics for Medicinal Plants 130 Main References 145 Chapter 5 Techniques of Medicinal Plant Conservation 148 Section 1 Techniques of In situ Preservation of Medicinal Plants 149 Section 2 Techniques of Ex Situ Preservation 153 Section 3 Information Extraction and Preservation Techniques of Medicinal Plants 173 Section 4 Technologies for Screening and Breeding Medicinal Plant Germplasm 189 Section 5 Techniques for Medicinal Plant Resource Restoration 194 Main References 202 Chapter 6 Conservation Strategies and Models for Medicinal Plants 205 Section 1 Analysis of Efficacy Retention in Medicinal Plants 206 Section 2 Strategies for Medicinal Plant Conservation 212 Section 3 Basis for the Formulation of Medicinal Plant Conservation Strategies 218 Section 4 Models of Medicinal Plant Conservation Strategies 228 Section 5 Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Medicinal Plant Conservation 235 Main References 249 Chapter 7 Conservation Case Study: Sophora tonkinensis 251 Section 1 Investigation of and Research on S. tonkinensis Resources 251 Section 2 Seed Breeding Techniques for S. tonkinensis 257 Section 3 Study of Tissue Culture and Breeding Techniques for S. tonkinensis 264 Section 4 Study of the Growth and Developmental Characteristics of S. tonkinensis 269 Section 5 Principles of Accumulation of Medicinal Ingredients in S. tonkinensis 273 Section 6 S. tonkinensis Cultivation Techniques 278 Section 7 Evaluation of the Effects of Conservation 285 Main References 290