Department of Pharmacology, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing 100102, China.
Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2011;2011:403709. doi: 10.1093/ecam/neq056. Epub 2011 Mar 10.
Synthetic chemical drugs, while being efficacious in the clinical management of many diseases, are often associated with undesirable side effects in patients. It is now clear that the need of therapeutic intervention in many clinical conditions cannot be satisfactorily met by synthetic chemical drugs. Since the research and development of new chemical drugs remain time-consuming, capital-intensive and risky, much effort has been put in the search for alternative routes for drug discovery in China. This narrative review illustrates various approaches to the research and drug discovery in Chinese herbal medicine. Although this article focuses on Chinese traditional drugs, it is also conducive to the development of other traditional remedies and innovative drug discovery.
合成化学药物在许多疾病的临床治疗中具有疗效，但往往会给患者带来不良副作用。现在很清楚，在许多临床情况下，合成化学药物的治疗干预需求无法得到满足。由于新化学药物的研发仍然耗时、资本密集且风险高，因此中国在寻找药物发现的替代途径方面付出了很大的努力。本综述说明了中草药研究和药物发现的各种方法。虽然本文重点介绍了中国传统药物，但它也有助于其他传统疗法和创新药物发现的发展。
