title: The Progress of Metabolomics Study in Traditional Chinese Medicine Research.
abstract: Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has played important roles in health protection and disease treatment for thousands of years in China and has gained the gradual acceptance of the international community. However, many intricate issues, which cannot be explained by traditional methods, still remain, thus, new ideas and technologies are needed. As an emerging system biology technology, the holistic view adopted by metabolomics is similar to that of TCM, which allows us to investigate TCM with complicated conditions and multiple factors in depth. In this paper, we tried to give a timely and comprehensive update about the methodology progression of metabolomics, as well as its applications, in different fields of TCM studies including quality control, processing, safety and efficacy evaluation. The herbs investigated by metabolomics were selected for detailed examination, including Anemarrhena asphodeloides Bunge, Atractylodes macrocephala Kidd, Pinellia ternate, etc.; furthermore, some valuable results have been obtained and summarized. In conclusion, although the study of metabolomics is at the early phase and requires further scrutiny and validation, it still provides bright prospects to dissect the synergistic action of multiple components from TCM. Overall, with the further development of analytical techniques, especially multi-analysis techniques, we expect that metabolomics will greatly promote TCM research and the establishment of international standards, which is beneficial to TCM modernization.
authors.affiliation: 1 Key Laboratory of Chinese Materia Medica (Ministry of Education), Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine, Harbin, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Pengcheng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: 1 Key Laboratory of Chinese Materia Medica (Ministry of Education), Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine, Harbin, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Qiuhong
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: 1 Key Laboratory of Chinese Materia Medica (Ministry of Education), Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine, Harbin, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Bingyou
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: 1 Key Laboratory of Chinese Materia Medica (Ministry of Education), Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine, Harbin, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Shan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: 1 Key Laboratory of Chinese Materia Medica (Ministry of Education), Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine, Harbin, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Haixue
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kuang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D054316:Biomarkers, Pharmacological; D016903:Drug Monitoring; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry / Q000592:standards / Q000633:toxicity; D006801:Humans; D008516:Medicine, Chinese Traditional; D055432:Metabolomics / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends*; D011786:Quality Control
chemical_list: D054316:Biomarkers, Pharmacological; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal
keywords: Metabolomics; Processing; Quality Control; Safety Evaluation; Therapy Efficacies; Traditional Chinese Medicine