穿心莲族是隶属于爵床科爵床亚族，包括7属，分布于亚洲的热带地区，许多种类是重要的药用植物。穿心莲族内一些属的界限一直存在争议，也缺乏完整的分类修订。本项目将对穿心莲族植物主要分类性状进行综合分析，开展叶结构、花粉形态、种子形态、花部器官形态发生发育及染色体等方面的研究，并应用DNA数据建立系统发育关系，建立穿心莲族的分类系统，对属的界限进行重新界定。在野外考察和查阅标本馆标本的基础上，对主要形态性状的变异式样和幅度进行分析，评价其分类学意义，完成穿心莲族的分类修订。

Andrographideae belongs to Acanthoideae of the family Acanthaceae and comprise seven genera distributed in the tropical region of Asia. It has disagreement on the generic delimitation. Some genera have never revised since established. The present program will establish a new classification and re-delimite the generic circumscription in Andrographideae on the basis of the studies on morphology of leaf, pollen and seed, floral ontogeny, cytology and molecular evidence. The taxonomic revision of Andrographideae will be finished basen on the field investigation and herbarium specimens examination to analysis the variation pattern of morphological charaters.