State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine, University of Macau, Macau SAR 999078, China.
J Ethnopharmacol. 2012 Sep 28;143(2):412-23. doi: 10.1016/j.jep.2012.07.033. Epub 2012 Aug 1.
Over the past decades, research of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) mainly focused on developing potential candidates from Chinese medicinal herbs, while the wisdom of applying these traditional herbs has not been paid as much attention as it deserves. As is well-known, multi-herb therapy is one of the most important characteristics of TCM, but the modernization drive of this conventional wisdom has faced many obstacles due to its unimaginable complexity. Herb pairs, the most fundamental and the simplest form of multi-herb formulae, are a centralized representative of Chinese herbal compatibility. In light of their simplicity and the basic characteristics of complex formulae, herb pairs are of great importance in the studies of herb compatibility.
A systematic search of herb pair related research was carried out using multiple online literature databases, books and monographs published in the past 20 years.
A comprehensive introduction to the compatibility of TCM, the position of herb pairs in TCM and the progresses of several famous herb pairs were provided in this review. Furthermore, the clinical study and the future research trends of herb pairs were also discussed.
Herb pairs have played, and may continue to play a key role in full investigation of general herb compatibility for their indispensable position in TCM. Much more research is needed for the standardization, safety evaluation, and mechanism exploration of herb pairs.
在过去的几十年里，中药（TCM）的研究主要集中在从中药中开发潜在的候选药物，而这些传统草药的应用智慧并没有得到应有的重视。众所周知，多草药疗法是 TCM 的最重要特征之一，但由于其难以想象的复杂性，这种传统智慧的现代化进程面临着许多障碍。草药对，是多草药配方中最基本和最简单的形式，是中药配伍的集中代表。鉴于其简单性和复杂配方的基本特征，草药对在草药配伍研究中具有重要意义。
使用多个在线文献数据库、过去 20 年出版的书籍和专着，对与草药对相关的研究进行了系统搜索。
本文对中药的配伍、草药对在中药中的地位以及几种著名草药对的研究进展进行了全面介绍。此外，还讨论了草药对的临床研究和未来研究趋势。
草药对在 TCM 中具有不可替代的地位，在全面研究一般草药配伍方面发挥了、并可能继续发挥关键作用。草药对的标准化、安全性评估和机制探索需要更多的研究。
