What are medical herbal preparations?

Simply put, it is a medicinal preparation made from raw materials that have been proven effective in long-term practice in the traditional herbal medicine system and processed in accordance with the production and inspection standards of modern medical drugs. The core attribute is that it has a clear disease treatment or targeted symptom improvement effect. It needs to go through a formal medical approval process before it can be put on the market. It is completely different from ordinary herbal health products and folk self-use herbal medicines.

A while ago, I was following up at a community hospital and met many patients suffering from seasonal allergic rhinitis. The goose grass nose drops prescribed by the doctor are a typical preparation of this kind. Compared with many hormonal nose drops, it is less irritating and is highly acceptable to the elderly and children. You have to take the goose that you have crushed at home, squeeze the juice and drip it into your nose. Not only is the concentration of the active ingredients uncertain, but it may also contain impurities that can cause infection. Medical-grade preparations have more than a dozen processes for sterilizing raw materials and purifying active ingredients. They are safe and effective.

Many friends who specialize in the research and development of chemical drugs will also mention it when talking to me. The mechanism of action of many herbal preparations has not yet been fully verified by molecular-level research. The sample size of clinical controlled trials is not as large as that of mature chemical drugs. There is indeed room for improvement in the accuracy of drug use. However, practitioners who transform traditional medicine also have a large amount of real clinical data to support them. For the rhinitis drops mentioned just now, we have collected feedback from more than 200 mild patients in the community and found that the symptom relief rate within a week can reach 76%. This data is real, but the most accurate molecular level explanation has not yet been found.

In fact, to put it bluntly, this type of preparation is a bit like a "standardized upgrade" of herbal prescriptions that have been passed down for hundreds of thousands of years. In the past, ordinary people used herbal medicines on their own. If the same prescription was picked by different people and cooked at different times, the effectiveness may be several times different. Medical herbal preparations block all these variables. From the growing place of origin and picking time of the raw materials, to the extraction process and the content of active ingredients, there are clear standards for every step to ensure that the effectiveness of each batch of products is stable.

I have to remind you that many products on the market now with the banner of "medical herbs" are actually just gaining popularity. If the product you buy does not have a batch number with the national drug approval, and the indications are not clearly marked in the instructions, then it is probably an ordinary herbal health product, not a real medical herbal therapy preparation. Don't believe the claims that it can cure all diseases. If you really need it, it is more reliable to go to a regular hospital to find a doctor for a prescription.