What are medical herbal therapeutic preparations?

Medical herbal therapy preparations are medicinal/medical preparations that are approved after purification, detoxication treatment, and clinical verification in accordance with pharmaceutical-grade production standards, using the medicinal active ingredients of herbal plants as core raw materials. They are neither complete chemically synthesized drugs nor are they essentially different from folk homemade herbal prescriptions and ordinary herbal skin care products.

To put it bluntly, it is like a "precise screening" of herbal plants, retaining the active ingredients that can cure diseases, and screening out all the impurities that may cause allergies and irritations, and then make them into different dosage forms of ointments, tablets, sprays, and lotions according to the medication needs. The effective concentration is stable, and the safety standards meet medical requirements. You may think this name is a mouthful, but in fact, you have probably come across it when you go to the doctor. For example, if you have a red rash on your face due to seasonal allergies and go to the dermatologist, the doctor may prescribe purslane extract cold compress gel, or you may take Rubesia rubescens lozenges when you have strep throat, or Ginkgo biloba extract tablets used to improve mild microcirculatory disorders. In fact, they all fall into this category. When I was rotating in an outpatient pharmacy, I encountered patients who brought home-cooked mugwort water and asked if it could replace the mugwort-extracted eczema lotion prescribed by the hospital. In fact, it was completely different. The concentration of the home-cooked herbal water fluctuated, and it was also mixed with many impurities that could easily irritate the skin. Using it may aggravate the symptoms.

Of course, there is no completely unified classification of it in the industry. Some scholars believe that it belongs to a branch of modern traditional Chinese medicine and needs to be used according to the logic of TCM syndrome differentiation. For example, herbal preparations containing ephedra must be used by cold patients with cold symptoms. If they are not symptomatic, they will cause palpitation and insomnia.； There are also some opinions that classify it as an internationally accepted botanical medicine. For example, the anti-inflammatory preparations extracted from chamomile that have been approved abroad do not require TCM syndrome differentiation and can be used as long as they correspond to the indications. Both opinions are currently supported by their own clinical data, and there is no conclusion yet.

I have to mention here that many merchants on the market now sell ordinary skin care products, or even three-free products, under the banner of "medical herbal preparations." When choosing, remember to read the approval documents. They are either drugs with national drug approval or medical dressings with mechanical trademarks. Don't take them seriously if they don't have formal approvals. And even regular medical herbal preparations are not 100% free of side effects. I have encountered patients who are allergic to honeysuckle components. After using rhinitis sprays containing honeysuckle, their nasal cavities became more red and swollen. Therefore, it is best to follow the doctor's advice before using it, and do not buy it on your own.