Because the author of Edible Materia Medica has rich medical knowledge, the book is still a classic representative of dietotherapy works commonly used in traditional Chinese medicine, which has a good social influence and is widely recognized by readers.

The book is divided into sixteen parts and sixty-two categories, with a total of 1740 species. The first volume contains the "Rescue Spectrum", that is, 60 kinds of wild vegetable recipes compiled by Wang Pan in the Ming Dynasty, supplemented by 60 kinds of vegetation foods, and renamed it "Rescue Spectrum". Volume 1 ~ 4 The Ministry of Water has collected 9/kloc-0 kinds of waterless, groundwater, famous water and poisonous water, collected hydrological data of famous springs all over the country, and recorded the efficacy of all kinds of water in detail, which is also one of the characteristics of this book. Volumes 5 ~ 2 1 are cereals, vegetables, fruits, scales, vectors, snakes, insects, birds, beasts, flavors, grasses, wood, fire, gold, jade and earth. The last volume is a collection of diet theory, toxic food, treatment methods, Sun Zhenren's monthly conditioning and treatment methods. This book collects a lot of information about conditioning, nourishing and feeding, as well as edible wild vegetables and weeds that can save the famine and cure diseases. Each food is described in detail from the aspects of taste, toxicity, source, efficacy, symptoms of Wang's treatment, use and application of single medicine, and some of them are accompanied by Yao's comments or comments. The content is rich, detailed and practical, and has high reference value. .