Covid-19 pandemic has caused hundreds of thousands deaths and millions of infections and continued spreading violently. Although researchers are racing to find or develop effective drugs or vaccines, no drugs from modern medical system have been proven effective and the high mutant rates of the virus may lead it resistant to whatever drugs or vaccines developed following modern drug development procedure. Current evidence has demonstrated impressive healing effects of several Chinese medicines (CMs) for Covid-19, which urges us to reflect on the role of CM in the era of modern medicine. Undoubtedly, CM could be promising resources for developing drug candidates for the treatment of Covid-19 in a way similar to the development of artemisinin. But the theory that builds CM, like the emphasis of driving away exogenous pathogen (virus, etc.) by restoring self-healing capacity rather than killing the pathogen directly from the inside and the 'black-box' mode of diagnosing and treating patients, is as important, yet often ignored, an treasure as CM herbs and should be incorporated into modern medicine for future advancement and innovation of medical science.
Antiviral Agents/therapeutic use* ; COVID-19/therapy* ; Disease Outbreaks ; Drug Development/standards* ; Drug Resistance, Viral/genetics* ; Drug Therapy, Combination ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal/therapeutic use* ; Humans ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional/trends* ; Mutation Rate ; Pandemics ; Phytotherapy/methods* ; SARS-CoV-2/physiology*

The development of Chinese medicine and Western medicine andrology is based on different social background and academic systems, either Chinese medicine or Western medicine andrology has their limitations, therefore, integration of Chinese and Western medicine (ICWM) andrology is in a great need. After more than 30 years of development, andrology has made great achievements in the construction of specialized academic association, holding academic conferences and publication of academic monographs, and the research progress on this field is mainly in the combination of disease and syndrome, microdifferentiation of symptoms and signs and basic research development. However, the comprehensive theoretic system of ICWM andrology has not yet established, and the related studies are still on the primary stage. In the future studies, great efforts still need to be made to expand the methods for the investigation of ICWM, and make innovations in the field of andrology.
Andrology ; trends ; Humans ; Male ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; trends ; Periodicals as Topic ; Research Design

Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) is a new highly infectious disease caused by a novel coronavirus. Recently, the number of new cases infected pneumonia in the world continues to increase, which has aroused great concern from the international community. At present, there are no small-molecule specific anti-viral drugs for the treatment. The high mortality rate seriously threatens human health. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is a unique health resource in China. The combination of TCM and Western medicine has played a positive and important role in combating COVID-19 in China. In this review, through literature mining and analysis, it was found that TCM has the potential to prevent and treat the COVID-19. Then, the network pharmacological studies demonstrated that TCM played roles of anti-virus, anti-inflammation and immunoregulation in the management of COVID-19 via multiple components acting on multiple targets and multiple pathways. Finally, clinical researches also confirmed the beneficial effects of TCM on the treatment of patients. This review may provide meaningful and useful information on further drug development of COVID-19 and other viral infectious diseases.
Antiviral Agents/pharmacology* ; COVID-19/drug therapy* ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal/pharmacology* ; Humans ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional/trends* ; SARS-CoV-2/drug effects*

In order to find the trends in Panax notoginseng industries of China, a combination of data analysis and empirical analysis was applied to analyze the application of global P. notoginseng patents, the innovation field, the distribution of patent assets, the patent citation network, the distribution of enterprises, the talent team, the competition and cooperation situation based on the financial big data platform of intellectual property industry. From the perspective of industrial technology hotspots, the clinical application of P. notoginseng is becoming more and more widespread, and its clinical treatment field is further expanding. From the perspective of industrial fields, the P. notoginseng industry has gradually expanded from the traditional Chinese medicine field to food, cosmetics, beverages, tea and other daily consumer goods. From the perspective of patent quality, the average maintenance life of P. notoginseng patents of China is lower than the global level, and the value and quality of patents need to be further improved. And the quality of P. notoginseng of China related patent applications has gradually improved in recent years. We analyzed the technology, capital, and talent issues of P. notoginseng industry of China, and summarized and forecasted the status and trends of P. notoginseng industry development of China. It is considered that scientific and technological innovation has become the core engine for the development of the P. notoginseng industry and intellectual property, especially patent protection, escorted the sustainable development of the P. notoginseng industry. Based on the above analysis, several suggestions were put forward to promote the high-quality development of the P. notoginseng industry. It should strengthen scientific and technological support, especially the need for a large number of high-quality scientific and technological output, expand multi-party cooperation, build a high-level technological innovation platform for the P. notoginseng industry, guide long-term capital to continuously and stably invest, and help the P. notoginseng industry to revitalize.
China ; Drug Industry/trends* ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Panax notoginseng/chemistry* ; Patents as Topic

As a large micro-ecosystem in the human body,the intestinal microbiota is closely associated with the occurrence of many diseases.The clinical investigations and animal experiments have showed that traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) could maintain the balance of the intestinal micro-ecological system.This review summarized the research methods and literatures on the regulation effects of TCM,including different effective ingredients,extracts and Chinese herbal formulae,on intestinal microflora in recent five years,in order to provide a reference for the further research and development of TCM.
Animals ; Gastrointestinal Microbiome ; drug effects ; Humans ; Intestines ; microbiology ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Research ; trends

Alpinia oxyphylla is mainly produced in Hainan,and also one of the four famous traditional Chinese medicines in South China with increasing importance in traditional Chinese medicine industry. Field surveys and literatures show that A. oxyphylla has widely used as a medicinal and edible plant,it is an important raw material for many Chinese patent medicines,health products and food,with a long history of artificial cultivation and application. The future development is prospected on health market. But A. oxyphylla industry has faced a lot of problems,including unreasonable planting layout,lack of good varieties,imperfect seed breeding system,low level of standardization,inconsistent quality of medicinal materials,low level of industry,and so on. The suggestions for sustainable development are listed below.First,it is essential to strengthen the research on the basis and application technology of A. oxyphylla,speed up the selection and breeding of improved varieties,and popularize standardized cultivation techniques. Secondly,it is important to strengthen the research on quality standards,improve the quality evaluation system of medicinal materials. Thirdly,it is necessary to take full advantage of the functional components to develop functional products with Hainan characteristics,find out the unique product characteristics of A. oxyphylla,build a famous brand and improve the product competitiveness in the market. It is also important to strengthen policy support and industrial supervision,promote the healthy and rapid development of A. oxyphylla industry.
Alpinia ; chemistry ; China ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; pharmacology ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; trends ; Plant Breeding ; Plants, Medicinal ; chemistry ; Seeds

The three elements in evidence-based clinical decisions are " best clinical research evidence,physicians' personal experience,and patients' basic values and wishes". This concept coincides with the " bio-psycho-social" model of systematic medicine,and this is the key reason why evidence-based medicine has become the most important diagnostic and therapeutic system under the new medical model. However,there is no methodological support for the implementation of " respecting patients' basic values and wishes".As a result,this concept is difficult to be implemented in clinical practice,and has become the form of " patient or family member' s signature for consent". In narrative medicine,doctors are advocated to record details,psychological processes and even family members' feelings in non-technical language to form parallel medical records,and the key point is to achieve " empathy" between doctors and patients. This idea is consistent with traditional Chinese medicine( TCM),and also provides a practical operation method " to respect patients' basic values and wishes". Medicine is a discipline based on human science,with dual attributes of science and humanity. Humanistic care is the tradition of TCM,and also is one of the basic characteristics and core connotations in TCM. Therefore,in the development of evidence-based TCM,we should combine evidence-based medicine with narrative medicine,and inject humanistic care into evidence-based medicine with the concept and methodology of narrative medicine,so as to achieve the deep integration of science and humanity.
Evidence-Based Medicine ; Humans ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; trends

As China's social development enters the New Era and the pursuit of healthcare is on the rise,people put forward the new requirements to traditional Chinese medicine( TCM) service capability. It is a great mission entrusted to practitioners to give full play to the unique characteristics and strengths of TCM. The development of TCM is currently confronted with important chances and challenges,and has entered a period of adjustment. In order to promote the healthy and sustainable development of TCM and enlarge people's sense of gaining in particular,it is vital to improve the contribution of TCM in China's medical and health services. My suggestions are as follows: ①The development of TCM should stay true to the vision of people's health-oriented development,accelerate shift of " three work emphasis",and scientifically construct five " should do" and five " should do even more" development path suited to features of TCM. ②The development of TCM should focus on the study of its " new four natures"( safety,effectiveness,controllability,accessibility) further,and pursue innovation-driven high quality development of TCM.
China ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional/trends*

To analyze statistically the situation of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) from 2007 to 2016 in the field of acupuncture and moxibustion for supporting the national Universities colleges of traditional Chinese medicine on the General Program (GP) and the National Science Fund for Young Scholars (NSFYS). In view of five aspects, named fund, supporting units, key words, method, disorder and signal path, the differences were compared between GP and NSFYS, the following characteristics were summarized. ① The fund aid was increased from 2007 through 2013 and down-regulated from 2013 through 2016. In recent ten years, the funding condition was fluctuated, but increasing in tendency generally. ② The relevant projects of the same research direction had been approved continuously for over 3 years in a part of TCM universities, in which, the research continuity was the hot topic. ③ Regarding the therapeutic methods, acupuncture was the chief therapy; electroacupuncture, moxibustion and acupoints were involved as well. ④ The disorders involved in the research were cerebral ischemia, myocardial ischemia and reperfusion injury. It is suggested that the ischemic disorder is predominated in the research. ⑤ The signal path occupied the main research index system, including cell proliferation, metabolism, immune, apoptosis and autophagy. The researches on the other aspects were less.
Acupuncture Therapy ; trends ; China ; Humans ; Ischemia ; therapy ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Moxibustion ; trends ; Universities

For the characteristics of high stability， high conservation between species， and tissue specificity， circular RNA(circRNA) has been expected to become a new molecular biomarker for the clinical diagnosis， treatment and prognosis， and the potential target for targeted therapy. Study on the traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) syndrome includes not only the macro indexes collected by using four traditional methods of diagnosis， but also contains some micro information that can not be achieved by using the four traditional diagnosis methods. The questions such as how to deal with the relationship between the holistic concept of TCM and micro research， and how to solve the contradiction between the fuzziness of syndrome description and the accuracy of microscopic research， need to be considered before the micro research in TCM syndrome. circRNA as a new field of understanding human disease， may provide some ideas for the TCM syndrome research due to its characteristics. Overall， it is necessary to pay attention to explore the molecular level with same syndrome in different diseases and reveal the connotation and essence of syndromes by understanding of circRNA.
Biomarkers ; Biomedical Research ; trends ; Humans ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; RNA ; genetics ; Syndrome