Chinese herbology

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Chinese herbology (traditional Chinese: 中藥學; simplified Chinese: 中药学; pinyin: zhōngyào xué) is the theory of traditional Chinese herbal therapy, which accounts for the majority of treatments in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). A Nature editorial described TCM as "fraught with pseudoscience", and said that the most obvious reason why it has not delivered many cures is that the majority of its treatments have no logical mechanism of action.^[1]

The term herbology is misleading in the sense that, while plant elements are by far the most commonly used substances, animal, human, and mineral products are also used, some of which are poisonous. In the Huangdi Neijing they are referred to as 毒藥 (pinyin: dúyào) which means toxin, poison, or medicine. Paul U. Unschuld points out that this is similar etymology to the Greek pharmakon and so he uses the term pharmaceutic.^[2] Thus, the term medicinal (instead of herb) is usually preferred as a translation for 藥 (pinyin: yào).^[3]

Research into the effectiveness of traditional Chinese herbal therapy is of poor quality and often tainted by bias,^[4] with little or no rigorous evidence of efficacy.^[5] There are concerns over a number of potentially toxic Chinese herbs.^[6]