OBJECTIVETo explore appropriate methods for the research of the theory of Chinese medicine nature property and find the relationship between Nature-Family-Component of Chinese herbs.

METHODSFrom perspective of systems biology, we used Associate Network to identify useful relationships among "Nature-Family-Component" of Herbs. In this work, Associate Network combines association rules mining method and network construction method to evaluate the complicate relationship among "Nature-Family-Component" of herbs screened.

RESULTSThe results of association rules mining showed that the families had a close relationship with nature properties of herbs. For example, the families of Magnoliaceae, Araceae had a close relationship with hot nature with confidence of 100%, the families of Cucurbitaceae has a close relationship to cold nature with confidence of 90.91%. Moreover, the results of constructed Associate Network implied that herbs belonging to the same families generally had the same natures. In addition, some herbs belonging to different families may also have same natures when they contain the same main components.

CONCLUSIONThese results implied that the main components of herbs might affect their natures; the relationships between families and natures were based on the main compounds of herbs.