Mapping of plant-based medicine research in China and India.

An analysis of 2,183 papers published by Chinese researchers and 1,034 papers published by Indian researchers in the field of plant-based medicine during 1990-2004 and indexed by Pub Med indicates that China's output is more than twice to India's output. Medical universities and colleges mainly contribute to China's output, while academic institutions mainly contribute to the Indian output. The major focus of Chinese researchers was on chemical analysis including chromatographic and spectrometric investigations, followed by oncology/radiation protection. Indian researchers emphasized gastroenteritis/liver diseases and oncology/radiation protection. The investigations were mainly focused on native plants of respective countries. Chinese researchers preferred to publish their work in domestic journals; Indian researchers in journals published from the Western countries. The share of papers in journals covered by SCI for India was higher than that from China. However, the proportion of papers in high impact factor journals for China is higher than for India. Average rate of citation for Chinese and Indian papers was almost the same. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]