Drug Discovery and Traditional Chinese Medicine

There has been a growing interest in the use of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) both in China and globally. In China, increased health care costs are associated with the widespread use of Western drugs and their related side-effects. Currently two-thirds of the drugs used in China are of Western origin while the other third is TCM. Health care costs can be more effectively controlled by wider use of TCM. Such trends provide an opportunity to develop a pharmaceutical industry based on herbal products for both the Chinese and global markets. Internationally, the World Health Organization has noted that a majority of the populations of developing countries mainly rely on traditional herbal formulations. Therefore, standardized and effective herbal medicines can play an important role in health care. All of this coincides with the growing use of herbal medicines in industrialized countries. To date, very little scientifically sound research on TCM has been published in English. This book is meant to provide the English-speaking world with a collection of papers on this important subject, covering such topics as research and development, clinical studies, and commercialization.