日本生藥學自十九世紀末發端,1920年代適逢皇漢醫道復興運動,其漢醫、藥之歷史糾葛深遠,但兩者基本上,因在日本時空條件及文化傳統等因素得以共同發展。然臺灣則因西醫界僅重漢藥科學化分析,將漢醫棄之於歷史灰燼,以致漢藥使用從漢醫原理中剝離。此舉不僅化漢藥為現代藥理學之研究對象,亦讓某些傳統藥方披上科學之名,成為流通市面的「科學中藥(漢方)」。儘管戰前之日本法規,允許西醫師處方並調劑生藥材,漢醫治療理論與傳統漢醫師卻沒能共蒙其利,反在其與漢藥的剝離過程中益發失色。相較於草藥可以被「科學化」,從而成為常民醫療體系的一環,漢醫療法似乎在戰後臺灣仍受到排斥。簡言之,由於漢藥能被納入現代藥學而研究分析,使其得到「科學化」的外衣,得以延續與增強既有之民間信賴;相反地,漢醫則因為無法為西洋醫學所吸納,遂逐步被整個當代醫療體系邊緣化。
The study of pharmacognosy started in the late 19th century Japan and boomed in the 1920s while the Renaissance Movement of Chinese medicine (Ko-kan Ido) was ignited. The complicated relationship between therapeutic theory and herbal drugs of Chinese medicine dated centuries while they co-existed in Japan but conflicted in colonial Taiwan. In Japan, traditional herb could be analyzed in laboratory coating with the color of °ßscience°® for marketing. However, the colonial government in Taiwan strongly promoted modern western medicine as a symbol of modernity and Chinese medicine was outdated and superstitious. Over time, Chinese herbal medicine became the core issue of Japanese pharmacognosy while °ßscientific Chinese medicine°® was merely a commercial slogan.