The People’s Republic of China attaches great importance to the protection of wild medicinal materials. As far back as in December of 1987, the State Council of P.R.C. enacted and decided to enforce the Regulations on Protection & Control of Wild Medicinal Materials, which presented that China will carry out principles of combining protection with gathering and hunting to the wild medicinal materials, and create favorable conditions to develop artificial planting and raising.

In the Regulations, wild medicina1 materials under the state's key protection are divided into three levels. Level-I means the rare and precious species of wild medicinal materials on the verge of extinction. Level-II includes the major species of wild medicinal materials with small range and exhausting state of resources. Level-III comprises the main, commonly used species of wild medicinal materials the resources of which greatly reduced. The detailed directory is as follows:

Level-I: tiger-bone, leopard-bone, antelope's horn, sika deer’s pilose antler;
Level-II: red deer's pilose antler, musk, bear gall, pangolin scales pieces, senso, frog oil, Agkistrodon, Zaocys (black-tail snack), long-nosed pit viper, red-spotted lizard, liquorice(licorice ), Coptis chinensis, ginseng, Cortex Eucommiae Bark, Cortex Mangnoliae Officinalis, Cortex Phellodendri, Sanguis Draconis;
Level-III: Bulbus Fritillariae Cirrhosae, Radix Acanthopanacis Senticosi, Radix Scutellariae, Polyporus, Radix Gentianae, Radix Ledebouriellae, Radix Polygalae, Rhizoma Picrorhizae, Herba Cistanches, Radix Gentiana Materophyllae, Herba Asari, Radix Arnebiae seu Lithospermi, Fructus Schisandrae, Fructus Viticis, Fructus Chebulae, Fructus Corni, Dendrobium Nobi1e, Asafetida, Weeping Forsythia, Rhizoma seu Radix Notopterygium.　

In the Regulations, it's stipulated that it's forbidden to gather and hunt the species of Level-I; gathering, hunting and purchasing of Level-II species must be carried out in accordance with the authorized plans, and must be provided with a Certificate of Medicine Gathering. If gathering or hunting is required, a Certificate of Gathering or a Certificate of Hunting must be applied for to the concerned authorities. Besides, gathering or hunting species of Level-I and Level-II is not allowed to occur in the suspended gathering& hunting area, and during the closed season, use forbidden tools. Scientific research, teaching and traveling activities in the conservation area of wild medicinal material resources must be approved by the control department of the area. On aspects of trade export, medicinal parts of species of Level-II and Level-III are exported with quantity limited except for the state's other stipulations.

In 1ine with the international great family's efforts on preserving rare species of the world, China has successively drawn up, promulgated and implemented such laws and rules as the Wildlife Protection Law of P. R. C., Implementing Regulations on Land Wildlife Protection of P. R. C. etc. China also signed the concerned international treaties such as International Trade Convention for Wild Plants & Animals Species in Imminent Danger. According to the related regulations in these legal documents, on May 29, 1993, the State Council of P. R. C. issued the Notice on NO Trade of Rhinoceros and Tiger Bones, reiterating all trade activities of rhinoceros horns and tiger bones are forbidden. The Notice stipulated that rhinoceros horns and tiger bones (including their identifiable parts and medicines, handcrafts with their ingredients, and the same to the following) are strictly forbidden from being imported and exported. Any organization or individuals forbidden to transport, carry or mail them for entry and exit in China. All samples of them on the products"package are treated as including them. Domestically selling, purchasing, transporting and mailing them are also forbidden. Medicinal standards for them are canceled. From now, it is forbidden to manufacture medicines with them. TCM prescribed preparations including their ingredients will be sealed up and forbidden to sell within half a year since the Notice was issued. China also encourages the development and research on substitutes of them for medicinal use, and vigorously publicizes, popularizes the results of the research. The efforts of P. R. C. stated above have witnessed great achievements and increasingly attracted attention and favorable comments from the international society.