What are the medical herbal therapy preparations?

Currently, the core of domestic medical herbal therapy preparations approved by the drug regulatory authorities for clinical use are compliant categories prepared by extracting effective components from medicinal plants included in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia. Common categories include topical ointments/sprays, oral patent medicines, and plant extract injections. Some of these categories have been in clinical use for decades, and the safety and effectiveness of many categories have been controversial in recent years.

The Yunnan Baiyao aerosol that you spray when you sprain your ankle during exercise, the Qingpeng ointment prescribed by doctors for eczema and dermatitis, and the Lithospermum oil used after minor burns are all herbal preparations for external use. Most of these preparations act directly on the lesions, with few components entering the bloodstream and relatively low adverse reactions. They are currently the most widely used and controversial category in clinical practice. When I was rotating in the dermatology department of a community hospital, I met many parents who brought their babies to treat red buttocks. The hospital-made comfrey oil can be cured by applying it two or three times. It is more effective than many imported diaper creams. The only disadvantage is that this kind of in-hospital preparation can only be prescribed in the hospital and cannot be distributed to outside pharmacies.

The Pudilan Anti-inflammatory Oral Liquid, Compound Danshen Dropping Pills, and Lianhua Qingwen Capsules that everyone often hears are all oral medical herbal preparations. Most of these preparations have gone through multiple rounds of purification of active ingredients, and the effective concentration is more stable than the herbal medicines boiled at home. There is no need to calculate the dosage and boil, making them much more convenient to use. Of course, not all oral herbal preparations are absolutely safe. In the past, many people bought Pudilan and suffered from abdominal pain and diarrhea. After all, no matter what kind of preparation, it must be used according to the doctor's advice to be reliable.

The most controversial ones are herbal injections. Bupleurum injection and Shuanghuanglian injection, which were commonly used in the past few years, fall into this category. They were used a lot to reduce fevers and fight viruses. However, in recent years, due to more and more reports of allergic reactions, many of these injections have been restricted to the group of people they are suitable for. For example, Bupleurum injection is now clearly not for use by children. The industry continues to be divided over this type of preparation: those who support it believe that herbal injections have a quick onset of action and are no worse than chemical drugs for certain viral diseases. As long as the purification process is in place, risks can be controlled. ； The opposing side believes that the ingredients of herbs are too complex, and it is difficult to completely remove macromolecular impurities no matter how much they are purified. The risk of allergies and hemolysis is always higher than that of chemical injections with a single ingredient.

In fact, to put it bluntly, medical herbal preparations are just like the soup we make. The crude soup is made by ourselves at home. It has enough ingredients but the flavor is unstable and may contain residue.； The purified oral and external preparations are standardized in the central kitchen and have a stable flavor and few impurities. ； Injection is equivalent to making the broth into a nutrient solution that can be directly injected into the blood vessels. The requirements for the purification process are several orders of magnitude higher, and problems can easily occur if you are not careful. There are also many herbal preparations undergoing evidence-based medical verification. For example, Compound Danshen Dropping Pills have completed the second phase of clinical trials by the US FDA and are advancing to the third phase. The purpose is to turn the effects accumulated through experience into real clinical data, making these preparations more reliable to use.