Traditional Chinese Medicine Herbal Drugs: From Heritage to Future Developments

Traditional Chinese medicineTraditional chinese medicine(TCM) refers to medicine that has been collected, processed, prepared, and applied in clinics under the guidance of TCM theory. TCM herbal drugs mainly come from natural medicinal ingredients and their processed products, including plant medicine, animal medicine, mineral drugs, and parts of chemical biological preparation. Although Chinese herbal medicinesChinese herbal medicines, composed of multiple biologically active compounds, are widely claimed to help a variety of diseases, they have not been fully accepted by mainstream medicine because of the complex nature of the formulae, as well as a lack of stringent quality controlQuality control. This chapter briefly features the heritage of TCM and discusses the potential opportunities for rationalizing and modernizing this ancient art of healing for global health care, and the technical and regulatoryRegulatorychallenges to be resolved. To date, the European Pharmacopoeia has already incorporated 75 of the 300 commonly used TCM herbal drugs, following publication of respective monographs by TCM working party of the European Directorate of Quality of Medicines and HealthCare. Through high-quality multidisciplinary collaborations between academia, clinicians, pharmaceutical industry and regulatoryRegulatoryagencies across the globe, we anticipate to harness the healing power of this two-millennium-old system of health care for establishing a novel platform of drugDrugdiscovery as well as creating an integrated personalized medicine of tomorrow