What are the medical herbal therapy preparations?

Currently, the medical herbal therapy preparations approved by the State Food and Drug Administration are all approved products that have undergone pharmacological and toxicological testing and clinical verification. They can be roughly divided into three categories: extracts of active ingredients of single herbs, traditional classic compound preparations, and targeted external dosage forms. They are essentially different from herbal prescriptions prepared by the private sector.

When I was rotating in the pharmacy of a top-level traditional Chinese medicine hospital, the first thing I came into contact with were single-flavor purified preparations, such as ginkgo leaf extract injection, salvia polyphenolate commonly used in emergency departments, and the famous artemisinin-based antimalarial drugs, which are all herbal medicines. The active ingredients in it are extracted separately, with few impurities and accurate dosage. Patients in the acute stage of cerebral infarction can use ginkgo leaf extract to improve brain blood supply much faster than boiled decoction. This type of preparation is also a commonly used drug that is clearly included in the current clinical pathway.

In addition to such modern purified products, what people come into contact with most every day are actually traditional compound herbal preparations, such as Xiao Bupleurum Granules, Lianhua Qingwen Granules, Compound Danshen Dropping Pills, and Huoxiang Zhengqi Oral Liquid, which have been used for hundreds of thousands of years. The classic ancient prescriptions are standardized and processed in accordance with modern pharmaceutical standards. For example, many of the current Huoxiang Zhengqi Waters are in alcohol-free formulations, which are designed to be suitable for special groups such as drivers and children allergic to alcohol, making them safer to use.

There is also a type of herbal preparations that are widely used in clinical practice, such as Yunnan Baiyao aerosol commonly used in orthopedics, Qingpeng ointment used in dermatology to treat eczema and burns, and medical Lithospermum oil. I once met an aunt with a gastric ulcer who sprained her feet and did not dare to take non-steroidal painkillers. She just sprayed Yunnan Baiyao and applied plasters. Most of the swelling disappeared in three or four days, with almost no systemic side effects. It is especially friendly to patients with underlying diseases.

There is also a lot of controversy over herbal preparations in the industry. Some practitioners with a Western medicine background feel that the mechanisms of action of many compound preparations have not been fully studied at the molecular level, and clinical control data on large samples are not as sufficient as chemical drugs. Practitioners with a traditional Chinese medicine background more recognize the advantages of multi-target effects of compound preparations, which are especially suitable for long-term treatment of chronic diseases such as hypertension and diabetes. Currently, both sides are doing more integration research, and many compound preparations are conducting in-depth analysis of active ingredients in order to clarify the applicable boundaries.

One thing to remind you is that there are many Sanwu products on the market now under the banner of "herbal preparations", claiming to be able to cure various difficult and complicated diseases. When purchasing, you must look at the approved batch number of the national medicine and use it according to the doctor's instructions. Don't use yourself as a guinea pig to test folk remedies.