Meanwhile, an entire pharmacopoeia of medicines have gone off patent and fallen out of use.

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And the tiger is a living pharmacopoeia: nearly every part of it has commercial value.

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But over the last four months, drug companies have unveiled a pharmacopoeia of promising new compounds.

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The pharmacopoeia, in other words, would create a set of standards that all parties could work towards.

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You might have noticed the abbreviation HPUS in that ingredient list: this refers to the Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia, a list of homeopathic drugs.

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Officially, 1, 273 Western drug formulations are sold in China, far more than the 564 traditional Chinese medicine formulas, according to the 2005 Chinese Pharmacopoeia.

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The hope is that by telling buyers which herbs are valuable for what, which characteristics to seek when making a purchase, and which chemical tests identify active ingredients, the new pharmacopoeia will provide that boost.

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