Medical herbal therapeutic preparations work by

The core function of medical herbal therapy preparations is to use standardized extracted active ingredients of herbal plants under the framework of modern pharmaceutical regulatory standards to achieve targeted symptom relief and mild regulation of target organ function. At the same time, it can assist conventional treatments to reduce the incidence of adverse reactions. It is a standardized product after the evidence-based verification of traditional herbal applications.

Last week, I met an old man who was following up for COPD in the outpatient clinic. He used to use glucocorticoid inhalers and his mouth always felt sticky, and he occasionally developed pharyngeal ulcers. He switched to a medical herbal mouthwash that added honeysuckle and Ophiopogon japonicus extracts. After each inhalation, he rinsed the medicine for 30 seconds. After using it for two weeks, the ulcers have long since disappeared, and the stickiness in his mouth has been mostly relieved. Don’t think this is a “placebo effect.” The role of herbal preparations containing polysaccharides and flavonoids in repairing mucous membranes has long been proven by cell experiments, but practitioners of different schools have very different positions on them.

Most doctors in Western medicine clinics tend to be cautious. After talking to colleagues in the respiratory department, he felt that the quantitative thresholds of active ingredients in many herbal preparations are not yet completely unified. For the same Forsythia suspensa extract, the active ingredient content of raw materials from different origins can differ by up to 20%. Even in different batches of the same production line, fluctuations in potency may affect the stability of the effect, so most of them only list it as an auxiliary drug, and it is definitely not recommended to replace conventional treatment options. But an old professor who studies traditional herbal medicines doesn’t see it that way. At the last academic conference, he took a PPT and said that it is not in line with the logic of herbal preparations to use only a single ingredient to quantify. For example, the hypoglycemic effect of compound Pueraria lobata preparations is Pueraria lobata. Radicalin, puerarin flavonoids and other trace active ingredients work synergistically, just like playing a team game. Each ingredient has its own effect. Together, the effect is much better than a single ingredient working alone. Measuring only the puerarin content to determine the potency is a desperate task.

This is actually not unreasonable. When I was on duty in the dermatology department, I encountered several patients whose faces were red and burning after photorejuvenation. The single-ingredient ceramide repair cream was very slow to produce results. Instead, I switched to a second-class medical herbal cold compress gel containing madecassoside and purslane extract. The redness was reduced in about 2 to 3 days. It is definitely not a single ingredient at work. There are also chemotherapy patients who use medical herbal preparations containing turmeric extract to relieve nausea and vomiting, and postpartum mothers use herbal lotions containing Sophora flavescens and Cnidium monnieri to care for side incision wounds. The effects of these can be observed in clinical scenarios.

However, there is one thing to be reminded of. Many people think that "herbal" means "no side effects", which is too misleading. Formal medical herbal therapy preparations have undergone clinical trials in accordance with the requirements of the Food and Drug Administration. The raw materials meet the standards of the Chinese Pharmacopoeia and the entire production process has passed GMP certification. They are completely different from those "herbal remedies" on the market. A patient with waist and leg pain was admitted to the emergency department before. He bought an unknown "herbal analgesic preparation" online and took it for almost a month. In the end, his transaminase increased to three times the normal value. After checking, he found out that a large dose of tripterygium wilfordii extract was added illegally. If it is not prepared according to medical standards, it will be very toxic to the liver.

Speaking of which, I often stock up on medical herbal throat lozenges from regular manufacturers. When I have a sore throat during the late night, taking one lozenge lasts longer than ordinary lozenges. There is not so much added syrup, and it won’t get clogged the longer you hold it. In fact, the research on medical herbal preparations is still moving forward. Whether they are cautious or supportive, the core appeal is actually the same - as long as it can be used safely by patients and can really solve the problem, it is better than anything else.