Evidence map›Paper›PMID 30669335›Full record

ReviewMedicines (Basel, Switzerland)2019

Current Status and Major Challenges to the Safety and Efficacy Presented by Chinese Herbal Medicine.

Xian Zhou, Chun-Guang Li, Dennis Chang, Alan Bensoussan

Abstract readReview
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Review in Medicines (Basel, Switzerland), 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 62 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
62citing papers in PubMed, 4 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

62 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

  1. Effect of interventions for the management of sleep disturbances in patients with long COVID: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.Journal of clinical sleep medicine : JCSM : official publication of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine · 2025
    Pooled it
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  11. TCMToxDB: a comprehensive database for the toxicological analysis of traditional Chinese medicines.Database : the journal of biological databases and curation · 2026
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2 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Xian ZhouNICM Health Research Institute, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW 2751, Australia. p.zhou@westernsydney.edu.au.ORCID 0000-0001-8766-8158
Chun-Guang LiNICM Health Research Institute, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW 2751, Australia. c.li@westernsydney.edu.au.
Dennis ChangNICM Health Research Institute, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW 2751, Australia. d.chang@westernsydney.edu.au.
Alan BensoussanNICM Health Research Institute, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW 2751, Australia. a.bensoussan@westernsydney.edu.au.ORCID 0000-0002-7433-667X

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is not only used prevalently in Asian countries but has also gained a stable market globally. As a principal form of TCM, Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) is comprised of treatments using multiple Chinese herbs which have complex chemical profiles. Due to a lack of understanding of its modality and a lack of standardization, there are significant challenges associated with regulating CHM's safety for practice and understanding its mechanisms of efficacy. Currently, there are many issues that need to be overcome in regard to the safety and efficacy of CHM for the further development of evidence-based practices. There is a need to better understand the mechanisms behind the efficacy of CHM, and develop proper quality standards and regulations to ensure a similar safety standard as Western drugs. This paper outlines the status of CHM in terms of its safety and efficacy and attempts to provide approaches to address these issues.

Indexed as

Chinese herbal medicineefficacyherbal formulaeherb–drug interactionsafetysynergyTraditional Chinese medicine

Identifiers

PMID30669335
PMCPMC6473719

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.