Modern Chinese patent medicine

Author: Chief Editor: Cheng Zhaosheng
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 1997-06-01
Features: Excerpt: (III) The Development History of Traditional Chinese Patent Medicine
The application of traditional Chinese patent medicine in China has a long history. In 1973, the Fifty-two Disease Formulas discovered in the No. 3 Han Tomb at Mawangdui, Changsha, is the oldest extant medical recipe book in China. The book contains 283 medical formulas, including ancient dosage forms such as pills and powders. The Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon is the earliest classic work of traditional Chinese medicine, compiled during the Warring States period. It not only proposed the concept of "principal, deputy, assistant, and envoy" but also recorded 13 formulas, nine of which were patent medicines, including various dosage forms such as pills, powders, ointments, pills, and herbal wines, indicating that the application of traditional Chinese patent medicine was already quite widespread.
At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the renowned physician Zhang Zhongjing compiled Treatise on Cold Damage and Miscellaneous Diseases, which was later organized by later generations into Treatise on Cold Damage and Essentials from the Golden Cabinet. Treatise on Cold Damage contains 113 formulas, while Essentials from the Golden Cabinet contains 262 formulas. Excluding duplicates, the two books actually include 269 formulas, with over 60 types of patent medicines, using more than 10 types of dosage forms such as pills, powders, liquid extracts, washes, baths, fumigants, ear drops, nasal drops, ointments, rectal suppositories, and vaginal suppositories, indicating that the development of traditional Chinese patent medicine had begun to take shape.
During the Jin Dynasty, Ge Hong wrote Emergency Formulas for Quick Reference, a four-volume work with many inexpensive, effective, and easily obtainable recipes. It included dozens of patent medicines. During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Qilian physician Gong Qingxuan wrote Liu Juanzi's Ghost-Left Formulas, which is now the earliest surgical specialty book, containing over 140 internal and external medical formulas. A significant proportion of these were external patent medicines, such as ointments and plasters used to treat carbuncles, which were widely applied.
During the Tang Dynasty, Sun Simiao collected over 5,300 medical formulas from before the Tang Dynasty and compiled them into Essential Formulas for Emergency Use. Wang Tao wrote Essential Secrets from the Outer Platform, which contains over 6,000 formulas. Both books included a large number of patent medicines for treating diseases in internal, external, gynecological, pediatric, and ophthalmological departments. Among them, patent medicines such as Zisu Dan, Cizhu Wan, and Qili Jia Wan (i.e., Suhexiang Wan) are still commonly used today.
During the Song Dynasty, famous medical recipe books included Taiping Imperial Grace Formulas and General Collection of Holy Healing. The former contains 16,834 formulas, while the latter contains nearly 20,000, collecting a large number of traditional Chinese patent medicines. At that time, the state-established Imperial Pharmaceutical Workshop was later renamed the Formulary Bureau, specializing in the production and sale of traditional Chinese patent medicines. The state also ordered renowned physicians such as Pei Zongyuan and Chen Shiwén to correct the formulas collected by the Imperial Pharmaceutical Workshop and compile them into Formulary Bureau Formulas. After multiple revisions and supplements, it was finally named Taiping People's Welfare Formulary Bureau Formulas and promulgated nationwide, becoming the first state-published patent medicine classic in Chinese history and one of the earliest national pharmacopoeias in the world.
After the Song Dynasty, the rise of the four great physicians during the Jin and Yuan dynasties, as well as the establishment of the Warming School of Medicine during the Ming and Qing dynasties, all made significant contributions to the development of prescription medicine and traditional Chinese patent medicine.
During the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Di wrote General Relief Formulas, which contains 61,739 formulas, making it the most comprehensive collection of formulas and a valuable resource for studying traditional Chinese patent medicine. Especially, Li Shizhen compiled Compendium of Materia Medica, which contains over 10,000 formulas and records more than 40 types of patent medicine preparations, nearly including all modern dosage forms except injections. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, capitalist elements had begun to emerge in China, and private pharmacies flourished, allowing traditional Chinese patent medicine to be widely used and developed.
After the liberation, under the guidance of the Party's policies on traditional Chinese medicine and herbal medicine, traditional Chinese patent medicine also received due attention. Specialized institutions for the research, production, and operation of traditional Chinese medicine patent medicines were established across the country, achieving encouraging results in their exploration, organization, and improvement. In research, significant achievements were made in prescription medicine, traditional dosage forms, new dosage forms, new varieties, new excipients, new processes, and new technologies, as well as in quality control and testing methods, pharmacology, and components of traditional Chinese patent medicine. In education, nearly 30 universities and colleges across the country have established departments for higher education in traditional Chinese medicine, in addition to traditional Chinese medicine majors, there are also specialized programs in traditional Chinese medicine pharmaceuticals. In production, the industrial system of traditional Chinese medicine pharmaceuticals has been formed, with over 960 medium and large-scale traditional Chinese medicine pharmaceutical factories nationwide, producing more than 4,000 varieties of traditional Chinese patent medicines. In 1995, the total output value of traditional Chinese patent medicine reached 18.5 billion yuan.
Traditional Chinese patent medicine enjoys a high reputation internationally and is widely welcomed by friends from all over the world, serving as the main material basis for traditional Chinese medicine to go global.