Missing “Zheng (Patterns)” in Western Research of Herbs
Chinese materia medica (CMM), including Chinese herbal,
animal, and mineral medicine, has been widely researched in the past century
for their biological and pharmacological activities. However, their mechanism
and clinical efficacy studies did not always give expected results. For
example, the most commonly used Chinese herb for menstrual disorders, Radix
Angelicae sinensis, showed neither estrogenic nor progesteronic activity in
laboratory and clinical studies. Its efficacy should not be denied simply based
on such results, because it is mostly used together with other herbs in
formulae. Moreover, its regulation on menstruation may take effect through
other mechanisms, such as regulation of blood circulation. The key difference
of Chinese medicine (CM) from conventional medicine is its unique holistic view
on human body and diseases. CMM is mostly applied in clinic in the form of
formulae. Study on individual CMM, simply using methods for development of
conventional drugs, is unable to thoroughly reveal the power of CMM formulae.
The reason may partly result from improper design due to the lack understanding
about application principle of CMMs in CM, and/or to current lack of knowledge
about the causes of some symptoms and diseases. This paper will introduce the
importance of qi and blood in CM etiology and pathology, Zheng differentiation,
formulation of CMMs, and explain why one formula can treat different diseases
and one disease can be treated with different formulae. Examples in the paper
will demonstrate that proper studies on Zheng and its corresponding clinically
proven formulae could help scientists find new direction to explain and treat
symptoms and diseases that so far modern medicine has been unable to, provided
that the designer properly understands CM theories, etiology and pathology of
CM, as well as modern medicine. Strategy suggestions about research methods for
CMM and its formulae will be given at the end.
Source: Liu WJ.
What has been
overlooked on study of Chinese materia medica in the West? Chin J Integr Med. 2015
Jul;21(7):483-92.
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