What are the types of medical herbal therapy preparations

Currently, domestically compliant medical herbal therapy preparations are mainly divided around drug administration scenarios and dosage form characteristics. Those commonly used in clinical practice can be roughly classified into three categories: external use, internal use, and adaptation to special scenarios. This is the current mainstream consensus in the industry.

The most common ones are for external use, such as the herbal patch for promoting blood circulation and removing blood stasis prescribed by the orthopedics department for patients with lumbar protrusion, the compound sophora flavescens lotion prescribed by the dermatology department for patients with eczema, and even the lithospermum oil gauze used by the burn department. They all fall into this category and act directly on the surface of the skin or mucous membranes of the lesions, with fast absorption and minimal irritation. However, there are still some differences in the boundaries of this category in the industry. If some merchants claim that "medical herbal cleansing and skin care" only has a registered makeup brand name and does not have drug approval or device brand qualifications, it is actually not considered a medical preparation. Ordinary consumers can easily get confused on this point.

After talking about external use, let’s talk about the more familiar internal use. For example, when you go to the hospital to treat wind-heat and cold, the doctor prescribes Yinqiao detoxification tablets, or astragalus granules for patients with post-operative physical weakness, or even customized ointments made in traditional Chinese medicine clinics. They are all medical herbal preparations for internal use. There is also a controversial point that has not yet been unified: some scholars believe that traditional Chinese medicine decoction pieces are raw materials and are not counted as finished preparations. Therefore, it has not yet been determined whether decoctions boiled according to prescriptions are considered internal preparations. However, in clinical practice, such decoctions are generally included in statistics. After all, they are therapeutic products used directly by patients.

There is another category that everyone has little contact with, but is used more and more in clinical settings, which are special preparations adapted to specific diagnosis and treatment scenarios, such as herbal extracts for aerosolization in the respiratory department for patients with chronic pharyngitis, herbal suppositories prescribed by the anorectal department for hemorrhoid patients, and intravenous herbal injections that require strict control. These preparations are all targeted and can act precisely on the location of the lesion. I previously treated a middle school teacher who suffered from pharyngitis all year round. After taking lozenges for half a month, he did not feel better. I used a mist solution that was a combination of honeysuckle and Ophiopogon japonicus for three days, and 80% of the symptoms disappeared. This is because this kind of preparation can directly affect the throat mucosal lesions, and the utilization rate is much higher than that of oral medications.

To put it bluntly, the difference between these dosage forms is like the same ingredient. You can make it into a facial mask for external application, a soup for drinking, and a lozenge for the throat. Different usages require different adaptation needs. For ordinary patients, there is no need to understand the classification. As long as it is an herbal preparation prescribed by a regular hospital and has a regular medical batch number, there will be no problems if it is used according to the doctor's instructions.