Ethnopharmacological Survey of Traditional Chinese Medicine Pharmacy Prescriptions for Dysmenorrhea

Abstract

Chinese herbal medicines have long been used for the treatment of dysmenorrhea. The treatment experiences of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) pharmacies passed down through generations have contributed to a wealth of prescriptions for dysmenorrhea that have achieved significant therapeutic effects in countless Taiwanese women. Therefore, surveying and analyzing these prescriptions may enable us to elucidate the core medication combinations used in TCM prescriptions for dysmenorrhea. In the present study, a field investigation was conducted on various TCM pharmacies in Taiwan. A total of 96 TCM pharmacies were sampled, and 99 prescriptions for dysmenorrhea containing 77 different medicinal materials were collected. Compositae (8%) was the most common botanical source of the medicinal materials, and the predominant TCM property and flavor of the materials were warm (45%) and sweet (73%), respectively. The blood-activating and stasis-dispelling effect (23%) and the qi-tonifying effect (23%) were the most prevalent traditional effects, and the modern pharmacological effects most commonly found in the materials were anti-inflammatory (73%), antitumor (59%), and analgesic (12%) effects. Network analysis of the 77 medicinal materials used in the prescriptions, which was performed using the Traditional Chinese Medicine Inheritance Support System, yielded seven core medicinal materials and the corresponding network diagram. The seven core medicinal materials ranked in order of relative frequency of citation (RFC) were Angelica sinensis (Oliv.) Diels (Dang Gui), Ligusticum chuanxiong Hort (Chuan Qiong), Rehmannia glutinosa Libosch (Di Huang), Paeonia lactiflora Pall (Bai Shao), Hedysarum polybotrys Hand.-Mazz (Hong Qi), Lycium chinense Mill (Gou Qi Zi), and Cinnamomum cassia (L.). J. Presl (Gui Zhi). A total of 58 combinations, each consisting of two to five of the seven medicinal materials and 107 association rules among the materials, were identified. This study provides a record of valuable knowledge on TCM pharmacy prescriptions for dysmenorrhea. The rich medicinal knowledge of TCM pharmacies in Taiwan is worthy of further exploration, and the results of this study can serve as a basis for future pharmacological research and the development of naturally derived medications for dysmenorrhea.

Application of Prescription Reviews for Traditional Chinese Medicine to Improve Medical Disputes and Patient Satisfaction

“…(3) suitability of prescription unaudited by a pharmacist; (4) without age description in the prescription for newborns or infants; (5) using a prescription for western medicine, Chinese herbal medicine, and Chinese herbal medicine; (6) prescription using an abnormal name for medicine; (7) unstandardized or unclear description of dosage, specication, quantity, unit, etc., of medicine; (8) ambiguous usage and dosage of medicine; (9) no signature and modi ed date in a revised prescription, or no reasons for overdose or signatures; (10) incomplete or no clinical diagnosis; (11) more than ve medicines in a prescription; (12) no special reasons for the medicine usage over 7 days in an outpatient prescription, over 3 days in an emergency prescription, or an extension of medicine for chronic diseases; (13) prescribing specially managed drugs, such as narcotics, psychotropics, medical toxicants, and radiopharmaceuticals without strictly complying with rules; (14) prescription of antibiotics without strictly complying with rules; and (15) prescription of the Chinese herbal medicines without complying with the ranking of the compositions in four groups-monarch, minister, assistant, guide (also known as "Jun, Chen, Zuo, Shi").…”

“…As an important part of the hospital, the TCM pharmacy has a great impact on the social image of the hospital due to the professional skills and service quality, which is mainly responsible for the management of TCM, including the prescription reviews [ 9 ]. TCM prescription was not only the content of doctors' diagnosis but also the basis of drug allocation, which was directly related to the safety and effectiveness of patients [ 10 ].…”

An Ethnopharmaceutical Study on the Hypolipidemic Formulae in Taiwan Issued by Traditional Chinese Medicine Pharmacies

“…Following this, we corrected misused items in all collected medicinal materials, and the ratios of authentic and misused items were calculated. In addition, the relative frequency of citation (RFC) of all collected medicinal materials was calculated using the following equation ( Ahmad et al, 2017 ): After referring to ethnopharmacology literature, medicinal materials with an RFC >0.2 were deemed to be commonly used medicinal materials ( Chao et al, 2020 ; Ko et al, 2021 ; Su et al, 2021 ). Following this, the PubMed database was used to search for modern pharmacological research on these commonly used medicinal materials by using [(the scientific names of medicinal materials) and (Metabolic Diseases)] as keywords.…”

“…After referring to ethnopharmacology literature, medicinal materials with an RFC >0.2 were deemed to be commonly used medicinal materials (Chao et al, 2020;Ko et al, 2021;Su et al, 2021). Following this, the PubMed database was used to search for modern pharmacological research on these commonly used medicinal materials by using [(the scientific names of medicinal materials) and (Metabolic Diseases)] as keywords.…”

“…According to the literature, medicinal materials with RFC >0.2 are defined as commonly used materials (Chao et al, 2020;Ko et al, 2021;Su et al, 2021). In this study, a total of 17 of such materials have been investigated, which are ranked based on RFC 1).…”