药材
yào cái · HSK 7
drug ingredients
🌿💊 药材 = 药 (medicine) + 材 (material) = the raw materials of medicine
药 means medicine or drug; 材 means material or stock (as in 木材 timber, 教材 teaching material). Together: the ingredients that go into medicine, especially the dried herbs of Chinese herbal medicine.
药 — grass radical 艹 + 约 (yuē, phonetic)
A semantic-phonetic compound. The grass radical 艹 on top signals a plant or herb, reflecting that early Chinese medicines were largely herbal. The component 约 below provides the sound, hinting at the pronunciation yào. The traditional form is 藥.