Correlation Between Intestinal Flora and Traditional Chinese Medicine Syndromes of Diarrhea： A Review / 中国实验方剂学杂志

ABSTRACT

Diarrhea is characterized by increased bowel movements and loose and even watery stools. Its occurrence and development have been proved by modern research to be closely related to the imbalance of intestinal flora. Traditional Chinese medicine （TCM） pays a special attention to syndrome differentiation in treating diarrhea. Exploring the TCM syndromes of diarrhea is of great significance to the formulation of TCM diagnosis and treatment scheme of diarrhea and the improvement of clinical curative effects. There exist many similarities between TCM theory and micro-ecological theory concerning diarrhea. With the deepening of intestinal flora research， the significance of intestinal flora in TCM syndrome research has been increasingly highlighted. The close correlation of intestinal flora with the occurrence and development of diarrhea has provided new ideas of deducing syndrome and selecting prescription based on intestinal flora. This paper summarized the relationship between TCM syndromes of diarrhea and microscopic indexes such as immune response， neurotransmitters， brain-gut peptide， and proteins and analyzed the intestinal flora characteristics related to six common TCM syndromes of diarrhea. Meanwhile， based on the theory of deducing syndrome by prescription， namely deducing the syndrome by the efficacy of prescription or its medicinal components， the correlation between TCM syndromes of diarrhea and intestinal flora was indirectly verified， so as to identify the research direction of correlation between intestinal flora and TCM syndromes in the future. Numerous studies have shown that the TCM syndromes of diarrhea were highly correlated with the microscopic indexes such as inflammatory cytokines， neurotransmitters， and proteins. Syndromes and dysbacteriosis both resulted from pathogenic factors acting on the body， which were summarized from different angles. Different TCM syndromes corresponded to specific objective indicators of intestinal flora. Intestinal flora has the potential of being an internal material basis for powerfully revealing the TCM syndromes of diarrhea in the future.