An Overview of Traditional Chinese Herbal Formulae and a Proposal of a New Code System for Expressing the Formula Titles

Traditional Chinese herbal therapy can be characterized by theuse of a large number of multi-herb formulae. To provide modernand Western scientists without knowledge of Chinese literatureand cultural background easy access to information, a databasewith a total of 11 810 traditional Chinese herbal formulae wasconstructed. All the information was then translated into understandablescientific terms in English. While coining the formula titlesin English, we discovered some principles governing the namingof titles by using computer analysis. In addition, we observedthat about 92% of the formulae are in the range of single-herbformulae to thirteen-herb formulae. Most large number-herb formulaeare formulated by combining pre-existing smaller number-herbformulae. The King herbs ()with major therapeutic activity in a multi-herb formula wereidentified by the formulation concept using two parameters:the herbal dose and the herbal drug property (the degree oftoxicity). Based on such analytical data, we established anEnglish code system representing all formula titles writtenin ideographic Chinese characters: an array of important keywords such as ‘Herbal name in Latin + Efficacy (Targetorgans) + Preparation form + Number of herbs.’ By searchingthe English version of the database with any of the above keywords, a variety of information on the status of traditionalChinese herbal therapy can be accessed.