ABSTRACT
It is one of key scientific problems to identify the effective compounds in the study on new TCM. Because of the integrity of the effects of TCM, the diversity of constituents, the complexity of the targets and the unpredictability of the interaction among the components, the efficiency of the traditional efficacy substance research method is generally not high. Based on the research thought of quantitative composition-activity relationship, there are inevitable quantitative correlation between chemical compositions and its biological activity. The quantitative composition-activity relationship research is an effective method to detect the effective compounds. This article reviewed the common methods and technologies used in the quantitative composition-activity relationship research, with a purpose to provide some references for the study on basic effective components in TCM.