ABSTRACT
Chinese materia medica (CMM) has the multi-component, multi-target, and multi-pathway characteristics, which are coincided with the theory of network pharmacology. Therefore, applying network pharmacology to CMM researches will be helpful to explain the effects of CMM in the treatment of complex diseases holistically and systematically. In this paper, the recent progress in the applications of network pharmacology in CMM studies has been reviewed, including prediction and identification of targets and core bioactive components, clarification of the mechanism of action, explanation of the prescription composition rules, development of new indications, discovery of new active compounds and the combined application of network pharmacology and omics technologies, so as to accelerate the extensive applications of this new technology.