Application of “spider-web” mode in research of Chinese materia medica / 中草药

ABSTRACT

Chinese materia medica (CMM) is characterized with complicated components, diverse structures and multiple activities, whose quality and efficacy are difficult to display only by detection of single component. The comprehensive evaluation is greatly applied in CMM research by integrating assessment of multi-components, multi-indexes and multi-influence factors, and the challenge of which is how to choose the suitable method for data analysis. Radar chart is one of the most widely used multi-index comprehensive evaluation methods. Because of its high similarity with spider web in form, the concept of “spider-web” mode was put forward and used in the screening of quality marker (Q-maker), the quality evaluation of CMM, the stability study, the selection of bioactive components, and so on. In order to preferably apply the “spider-web” mode in CMM study, this paper systematically summarized the application of “spider-web” mode and radar chart in CMM and introduced its advantages, characteristics and application fields.