Zuo Jieyu, Park Chulhun, Kung Janice Yu Chen, Bou-Chacra Nádia Araci, Doschak Michael, Löbenberg Raimar
Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2E1, Canada.
John W. Scott Health Sciences Library, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2R7, Canada.
Pharm Res. 2021 Feb;38(2):199-211. doi: 10.1007/s11095-021-03007-x. Epub 2021 Feb 18.
Currently, the use of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) for healthy living in daily practice is widely accepted across the world. However, not much attention has been paid to the particular characteristics of TCM "pills", one of the classic dosage forms in TCM. For a better understanding, this review was undertaken to provide a modern pharmaceutical overview of pills. Over many centuries, pills have been developed in different types (honeyed pill, water-honeyed pill, watered pill, pasted pill, waxed pill, concentrated pill, and dripping pill) to achieve varying intended TCM release patterns. It suggests that knowledge relating to the impact of binders and excipients on drug release from TCM pills can be traced back to before dissolution testing was invented. Therefore, although Pills may be considered as an ancient and outdated dosage form compared to current drug delivery systems, they have surprisingly modern pharmaceutical properties that is highlighted in this article. In addition, this review found that the quality control standards for TCM pill are globally substantially different. Hence, greater effort should be taken to establish an internationally harmonized and proper standard to safeguard the quality of this dosage form and to ensure the alignment with TCM use.
目前，在日常实践中使用中药促进健康的做法在全球范围内已被广泛接受。然而，人们对中药经典剂型之一“丸剂”的特殊特性关注较少。为了更好地理解，本综述旨在提供丸剂的现代药学概述。几个世纪以来，丸剂已发展出不同类型（蜜丸、水蜜丸、水丸、糊丸、蜡丸、浓缩丸和滴丸），以实现不同的中药预期释放模式。这表明，与粘合剂和辅料对中药丸剂药物释放的影响相关的知识可以追溯到溶出度测试发明之前。因此，尽管与当前的药物递送系统相比，丸剂可能被视为一种古老且过时的剂型，但它们具有令人惊讶的现代药学特性，本文对此进行了强调。此外，本综述发现，中药丸剂的质量控制标准在全球范围内存在很大差异。因此，应付出更大努力来建立国际协调且合适的标准，以保障这种剂型的质量，并确保与中药的使用相匹配。
