Berberidaceae is a family of flowering plants belonging to the order Berberidales, subclass Magnoliidae, and class Dicotyledoneae in the phylum Magnoliophyta. The green plants in this family are pollinated by insects. The leaves are either simple or compound. There are about 650 species in 17 genera, mainly distributed in areas with temperate and subtropical climates in the mountains. In China, there are 11 genera with about 320 species, distributed in all provinces, but the most types are found in Sichuan, Yunnan, and Tibet Autonomous Regions. The green plants in this family consist of 13 genera with about 600 species, mainly distributed in the temperate zone, with about 10 genera and 300 species in China, mainly distributed in the central, western, and southwestern regions.

Medicinal plants of the Berberidaceae family

Epimedium brevicornu Maxim. is a perennial herbaceous plant. The rhizome is thick and hard. The leaves are basal or stem-based, usually compoundly tripetalous; the basal leaves are 1-3, with long petioles, the stem leaves are 2, opposite, with shorter petioles; the small leaves are ovate or broadly ovate, with an acute apex, a heart-shaped tip, with spiny hair-like serrations on the edge. The panicle is terminal, with white flowers; the outer calyx is smaller, the inner calyx is flower-like, milky white; the flower is shorter than the inner calyx. The fruit is nearly cylindrical. They grow in the forest under the valley or in the damp places on the small hills. They are widespread in Anhui, Hunan, Shanxi, Guangxi, and the northwest.

F. sagittatum (Sieb. et Zucc.) Maxim. is a perennial herbaceous plant. The rhizome is blocky, hard. The basal leaves are 1-3, compoundly tripetalous; the small leaves are ovate to lanceolate, the bases of the two small leaves are different in arrowhead heart shape, with spiny hair-like fine teeth on the edge, sparsely covered with short hard hairs or nearly hairless on the lower side. The panicle or raceme is terminal; the peduncle is hairless; the calyx is 4, in two rows, the inner row is flower-like, milky white, with a spur; the flower is 4, light yellow, with a long spur; there are 4 pistils. The carpel is 1. The fruit is a glans. They are widespread in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and the southern provinces and cities. They grow in the crevices of stones on the roadside in the bamboo sea. The leaves are used as Epimedium.

E. koreanum Nakai, the soft-haired Epimedium pubescens Maxim. leaves are also used as Epimedium. The above four species are the original green plants of the genuine Epimedium recorded in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia. Berberis ju.lianae Schneid. is a evergreen plant; the cross-section of the root and stem is light yellow. The leaf spines are tripetalous, hard. The leaves are leathery, usually 5 scattered in the axils of the leaf spines, elliptical or inversely lanceolate, with 10-20 spiny serrations on each side of the edge. The flowers are 10-30 in clusters on the petiole, light yellow, with 3 bracts, calyx, flower, and pistil all with 6. The fruit is oblong, dark blue, covered with white frost, with a persistent style at the top, containing one seed. They are widespread in Sichuan, Hubei, Guizhou, and the southern part of Shaanxi Province. They grow in shrub thickets on small hills above 1000 meters in altitude. The root and stem (medicinal name: San Zhen) are also the key raw materials for obtaining berberine.

Common medicinal plants at the undergraduate level include: Dysosma versipellis (Hance) M. Cheng ex Ying, the rhizome of Dysosma pleiantha (Hance) Woodson, and others.