Patella has been rejected. Partite patellas occur almost exclusively in men. Tripartite and even multipartite patellas occur. The upper three-quarters of the patella articulates with the femur and is subdivided into a medial and a lateral facet by a vertical ledge which varies in shape. Four main types of articular surface can be distinguished: In the patella an ossification centre develops at the age of 3–6 years. The patella originates from two centres of ossification which unite when fully formed. The primary functional role of the patella is knee extension. The patella increases the leverage that the quadriceps tendon can exert
Traditional Chinese medicines derived from the human body Traditional Chinese medicines derived from the human body Li Shizhen's (1597) "Bencao gangmu", the classic materia medica of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), included 35 human drugs, including organs, bodily fluids, and excreta. Crude drugs derived from the human body were commonplace in the early history of medicine. Some of these TCM human drug usages are familiar from alternative medicine, such as medicinal breast milk and urine therapy. Others are uncommon, such as the "mellified man", which was a foreign nostrum allegedly prepared from the mummy of a holy man who only ate honey during his last days and whose corpse