Is Chinese Medicine Extract Still Chinese Medicine?

Is Chinese medicine extract still Chinese medicine? For this question, different people may have different answers, maybe you have not paid attention to it. But anyway, from a pharmacist's point of view, there are still many differences between Chinese medicine extracts and Chinese medicine.

First of all, if you don't know what Chinese medicine extracts are, please recall whether you have heard of these medicines, such as berberine, ginkgo leaves, Maizhiling tablets, Kangfuxin liquid, etc. These are medicines made from Chinese medicine extracts. Among them, berberine is the berberine in Coptis, Ginkgo biloba is Ginkgo biloba extract, which mainly contains Ginkgo flavonoids and terpene lactones, and Maizhiling tablets are horse chestnut extracts. Kangfuxin Liquid is an extract of American cockroach. They have one thing in common, they are all related to Chinese medicine (herbal medicine), but they are not single-flavor decoction pieces directly processed according to traditional Chinese medicine.

Since they are related to Chinese medicines, why not treat them as Chinese medicines, but say that there are many differences? The reasons are as follows:

Traditional Chinese medicine decoction pieces pay attention to the four qi and five flavors returning to the meridian. A Chinese medicine has its own efficacy and medicinal characteristics. However, the functional characteristics and medicinal characteristics of this traditional Chinese medicine have changed after modern extraction, because the effective ingredients and their composition ratios before and after extraction have undergone tremendous changes. Therefore, compared with the original Chinese medicine, the efficacy and medicinal characteristics of Chinese medicine (herbal) extracts have changed.

The existing Chinese medicine extract preparations, judging from the instructions, the functions and indications of the medicines have been basically described in accordance with the western medical vocabulary, and there are few descriptions of traditional Chinese medicine theories. For example, the indication for berberine (berberine hydrochloride tablets) is "for intestinal infections", and the indication for ginkgo leaf instructions is "for chest pain, stroke, hemiplegia, and strong tongue Jian; coronary heart disease stable angina pectoris, cerebral infarction see the above syndromes", the indication of the instruction of Maizhiling tablets is "used for chronic venous insufficiency, varicose veins, deep vein thrombosis and postthrombophlebitis syndrome Lower limb swelling, cramps, itching, burning, numbness, pain, fatigue and heaviness, skin pigmentation, congestive dermatitis, ulcers, swelling and pain caused by varicocele, etc.” It can be seen that these Chinese medicines (herbal) are extracted Most of the indications in the instructions of the thing are described by western medicine.

These drugs have a wide range of clinical applications, and there are many cases of non-differential use. From the perspective of clinical practice, the clinical demand for proprietary Chinese medicines made from these Chinese medicine extracts is still relatively large. On the one hand, the instructions for these medicines have added indication information that is convenient for Western medicine to read; on the other hand, this single-component Chinese medicine (herbal) is also easily accepted by Western medicine, and Western medicine can also prescribe these Chinese patent medicines. In fact, "how to use" rather than "what" is the fundamental criterion for judging whether it belongs to Chinese medicine. If it is not used in accordance with the theory of traditional Chinese medicine, it naturally cannot be called Chinese medicine.