Data from a survey of the drug market and investigation of the original plant of "Tu-hou-po", after careful botanical examinations, showed that the drugs were derived from 5 species of the genus Manglietia of Magnoliaceae, viz. Manglietia chingii Dandy, M. insignis (Wall.) Bl., M. duclouxii Finet et Gagnep., M. yuyuanensis Law and M. szechuanica Hu. Comparisons of the main characteristics of the plants, Tu-hou-po and Hou-po crude drugs and chemical components showed that Manglietia is taxonomically the closest to Magnolia and contained similar components (tab 1-2 and fig 1). The results of HPLC analysis demonstrated that they contained magnolol, honokiol, magnocurine and salicifoline, in different quantities. However, no magnosprengerine was detected. Besides, it was also found that the percentage of magnolol and honokiol contents were higher, while that of magnocurine was lower in Hou-po. On the contrary, the content of magnocurine was higher, while that of magnolol and honokiol were lower in Tu-hou-po. Manglietia chingii (Tu-hou-po) is being used as the Chinese traditional drug "Hou-po" in the clinic in Guangxi. Therefore, M. chingii is noteworthily exploited as a new resource of Hou-po for further research.