Research Areas：Medicinal Plant Resources and Phytochemistry
During the past 53 years (1958 till now), Prof. Zhou concentrated on chemical and pharmaceutical research of plants of Dioscorea, Acomitum, Panax, Paris, Cynanchum, Gastrodia, Dendrobium, and some genuses of Fagaceae, Asclepiadaceae, Caryophyllaceae, Haemodoraceae etc. There are over 550 compounds, mainly sterides, triterpene, alkaloids, glycoside, cyclic peptide and phenols types, were isolated by him and his team from those plants and over 330 academic theses and 2 monographs "Chinese Oil Plant "and "Acorns "are published. He is adept in applying the fruits of the previous studies to promote the development of national economy, especially to advance the production of Yunnan province, such as ″Tianma″, ″Sanqi″, ″Chonglou″, ″Shuyu″ et al. He is clever in discover the law from the research experiments, such as his earlier research combining phytochemistry and geographic distribution. On the basics of his long-term research on "Yunnan Baiyao", he concluded first that multi components are the basis of Chinese Herbal Compound and those compounds act on multiple target point. He emphasizes on the innovation of research methods, such as the new detection methods of the cyclic peptide etc. He has trained 17 master degree and 21 doctor degree students by now, together with 5 students are studding for a doctorate after him. He has a nose for talent and there are about 20 academic pacemakers were directed by him to undertake research in phytochemistry or related fields. Prof. Zhou prepared to construct Lab. of Phytochemistry of Kunming Institute of Botany and support the Lab. became the State Key Laboratory of Phytochemistry and Plant Resource in West China. Prof. Zhou makes his great contributions toward the discipline, organization and students education of Kunming Institute of Botany.