The theory of rough sets has been applied to evaluate the importance of each herb in the Chinese herbal compounds in this study. This method could distinguish core herbs through different syndrome types in the same class of prescription by measuring the importance of attributes. Compared to the frequency statistical method, the rough sets method could reveal law of compatibility in categorized formula more deeply. This study gives some guidance to clinical application of herbs and the drug screening in the development of new Chinese traditional medicine.
Decision Trees ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Drug Prescriptions ; statistics & numerical data ; Drug Therapy, Combination ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; therapeutic use ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional