Chinese Materia Medica refers to natural medicines used under TCM theory, sourced from plants (roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits), animals (deer antler, bear bile, snake venom), and minerals (cinnabar, gypsum). The Chinese Pharmacopoeia (ChP) lists over 2,000 medicinal herbs; individual herbs contain anywhere from dozens to thousands of chemical constituents — forming an extraordinarily complex “natural compound library.”
## Major Active Compound Categories
**Alkaloids**: nitrogen-containing organic compounds, many with potent physiological activity. Examples: Ephedrine (from Ephedra sinica — sympathomimetic, bronchodilator); Berberine (from Coptis chinensis — antibacterial, hypoglycemic); Camptothecin (from Camptotheca acuminata — anticancer; derivative Irinotecan is in clinical use).
**Flavonoids**: widely present in TCM plants, primarily with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity. Examples: Quercetin (in Ginkgo biloba and many other herbs); Icariin (from Epimedium — estrogen-like activity); Puerarin (from Kudzu — cardiovascular protection).
**Polysaccharides**: Ganoderma lucidum polysaccharides (GLP — immune regulation), Lycium barbarum polysaccharides (LBP — antioxidant, retinal protection), and Poria cocos polysaccharides (PCP — antitumor) all have multiple preclinical and clinical studies.
**Terpenoids**: Artemisinin (sesquiterpene — antimalarial); Paclitaxel (diterpene from Pacific yew bark — anticancer, now a WHO essential medicine); Ursolic acid (triterpene in many herbs — hepatoprotective).
**Saponins**: Ginsenosides (ginseng’s core active compounds — anti-fatigue, immune regulation, neuroprotection); Astragalosides (from Astragalus membranaceus — cardiac muscle protection).
## Research Methodology
**Network Pharmacology**: building “drug component-target-disease” tripartite networks, searching TCMSP (Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology Database) and HIT (Herb Ingredients’ Targets Database) for active compounds, predicting targets, then validating binding stability via molecular docking and MD simulation. This approach has become the mainstream paradigm for TCM compound mechanism research, with exponentially growing publication volume.
**High-Throughput Screening (HTS)**: large-scale parallel activity screening of TCM extract libraries (potentially tens of thousands of samples) at cell or target level to rapidly locate “active fractions.” The Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica and Guangdong Provincial Hospital of TCM have established HTS platforms specifically for TCM.
See [TCM Modernization Overview](https://sunqi.org/tcm-modernization-overview-en/) and [TCMSP Database](https://tcmsp-e.com/).
