Traditional application and modern research progress on new foreign medicinal resources / 中国中药杂志

Chinese medicinal resources are the material basis for the survival and development of traditional Chinese medicine(TCM)and the sustainable development of Chinese medicinal resources is also an important project for the modernization of TCM in China. With the increasing demand for Chinese medicinal resources in China, over-exploitation has destroyed Chinese medicinal resources, resulting in a shortage of many natural medicinal resources in China and making the sustainable development of TCM in trouble. The introduced new foreign medicinal resources have become effective supplement and replacement for Chinese medicinal resources to some extent. However, the development and utilization of new foreign medicinal resources in China are different. To fully understand the development of new foreign medicinal resources in China, this paper, taking 43 new foreign medicinal resources such as Acacia nilotica as objects, sorted out the introduction forms and policies of new foreign medicinal resources, overviewed its current development status in China, summarized the application experience of new foreign medicinal resources in the place of origin, as well as the research progress and problems of new foreign medicinal resources in China and abroad, and analyzed the research situation, which can enrich Chinese medicinal resources and other uses, promote the sustainable development of Chinese medicinal resources, and provide ideas for further development and research of new foreign medicinal resources.

Materia medica resources benefits Lancang-Mekong River:a new approach for sub-regional cooperation on traditional medicine / 中国中药杂志

Lancang-Mekong Cooperation is a new type of subregional cooperation mechanism initiated and built by China and other five countries of the Lancang-Mekong subregion, namely Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Countries in the Lancang-Mekong subregion are geographically and culturally connected, and they have nurtured their unique traditional medicine. By combing the history of traditional medicine exchanges between China and other Lancang-Mekong countries and their progress of modern research, this paper summarized the challenges and opportunities of traditional medicine cooperation in the Lancang-Mekong subregion. It has been found that many regional cooperation mechanisms coexist for a long time in the Lancang-Mekong subregion and the medicinal resources are abundant. However, the degree of their development and utilization varies, and modern scientific research is insufficient. Lancang-Mekong Cooperation has provided a strong support for integrating the advantageous resources in Lancang-Mekong subregion countries and making progress together. Focusing on the development and protection of medicinal resources, this paper puts forward a new path of cooperation in the intellectual property rights and characteristic seed resource protection, the compilation of universal herbal pharmacopoeia in various countries, the research and development of public health products, and the construction of traditional herbal industry bases, thus enabling the traditional medicine to better protect the public health and building a human health community.

Progressive Muscle Relaxation Combined with Chinese Medicine Five-Element Music on Depression for Cancer Patients: A Randomized Controlled Trial / 中国结合医学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVES</b>To evaluate the effects of progressive muscle relaxation training (PMRT) combined with fifive elements music therapy of Chinese medicine (CM) for improving anxiety and depression of cancer patients.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>From June 2015 to March 2016, 60 cancer patients were included into the study. The patients were randomly assigned to a control group and a treatment group by envelope randomization, receiving PMRT and PMRT plus CM five elements music therapy, respectively, for 8 weeks. Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), Benefit Finding Scales (BFS), Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Spiritual (FACIT-Sp), and Intervention Expectations Questionnaire (IEQU) were adopted to assess the depression of the two groups before and after the treatment.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Four cases dropped out during the study, and 29 cases in the treatment group and 27 in the control group were included in the fifinal analysis. Prior to the treatments, the baselines of the 4 questionnaires in the two groups showed no difference. After the 8-week treatment, the treatment group presented better levels of HADS, BFS and FACIT-Sp scores compared with the control group (P<0.05). Among the single items of HADS, 4 items involving vexation, feeling fifidgeted, pleasure and prospecting the future in the treatment group were improved compared with the control group (P<0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>As a simple and reliable and effective intervention, PMRT combined with fifive elements music therapy mitigated anxiety and depression of cancer patients. Cancer patients have been found to respond well to psychological intervention in areas regarding stabilisation of emotions, disease awareness, and therapeutic compliance. This brings about a great difference in improving their quality of life and psychological state, offers an effective approach to better self-management in cancer treatment.</p>

Advantages and problems of traditional Chinese medicine in treatment of acute pharyngitis / 中国中药杂志

This paper systematically studies relevant literatures at home and abroad in recent years. China National Knowledge Internet (CNKI) was used to collect the literatures for acute pharyngitis treated with traditional Chinese medicine from January 1, 2006, to December 31, 2016, and the bibliometric method was employed for statistical analysis. A total of 493 papers were preliminarily selected. According to the inclusion criteria and exclusion criteria, 182 eligible articles were selected. According to the evaluation and analysis of the literatures, the Guidelines for Clinical Research of New Drugs is currently used as the common standards for the diagnosis and treatment of acute pharyngitis; Chinese patent medicines are the main traditional Chinese medicine for treating this disease; Decoctions for treatment of this disease include Lonicerae Japonicae Flos, Scutellariae Radix, Platycodonis Radix, Forsythiae Fructus, Glycyrrhizae Radix et Rhizoma, Scrophdlariae Radix, Isatidis Radix, and Ophiopogonis Radix; The bloodletting puncture is the common external therapy. Traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine have their own characteristics in the treatment of this disease. Western medicine for the treatment of acute pharyngitis are mainly antiviral, antibiotic and glucocorticoid drugs, whose disadvantages are toxicity, side effects, drug resistance and double infections. Traditional Chinese medicine doctors have rich experiences in the treatment of the disease, which is characterized by treatment determination based on syndrome differentiation, safe and reliable medication, significant curative effect, low drug resistance, and wide varieties of traditional Chinese medicine forms, convenient portability and taking, low price, and low toxic and side effects. It is an arduous and significant task to explore traditional Chinese medicine, and study and develop new-type effective drugs.

Effects of Chinese medicine five-element music on the quality of life for advanced cancer patients: a randomized controlled trial / 中国结合医学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVES</b>To evaluate the effects of the Chinese medicine (CM) five-element music on quality of life for senior and non-senior advanced cancer patients.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>With a randomized controlled trial, 170 advanced cancer patients were randomly assigned to three groups: the CM five-element music group (68 patients), the Western music therapy group (68 cases), and the no music therapy group (34 cases). All patients of 70 years old or older were considered seniors and the remaining patients younger than 70 years were considered nonseniors. Patients in the CM five-element music group listened to CM five-element music, the patients in the Western music group listened to Western music, and the patients in the no music group did not listen to music. A course of treatment was 3 weeks, with 30 min each day, 5 days a week. The Hospice Quality of Life Index-Revised (HQOLI-R) and Karnofsky performance score (KPS) were measured in the three groups before and after treatment. The symptom diary score was measured in the three groups every 3 days, 7 times in total.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>CM five-element music group showed a significant difference of HQOLI-R, KPS and symptom diary score with other groups (all P<0.01). There were significant differences of HQOLI-R, symptom diary score, and KPS after treatment in CM five-element music group and other groups in the non-senior subgroup (P<0.05). Additionally, there were significant differences in HQOLI-R and KPS after treatment among the three groups in the senior subgroup (P<0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>CM five-element music therapy could improve the quality of life and KPS for senior and non senior advanced cancer patients, and it could improve subjective symptoms for non-senior advanced cancer patients.</p>