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A Pressing Need: Standardisation of TCM Granule Products

Edmund F Tian, Huan Li, Martin Cai and Matthew Kong

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is a system of ancient medical practice that differs from modern medicine in its substance, methodologies, and philosophies. It has become increasingly pursued as a means of therapy worldwide, with sound medical methodologies complemented with herbs prescribed mainly based on knowledge documented in the Compendium of Materia Medica and various modern pharmacopoeias. However, modernisation and the demand for consumer convenience has led to a shift from the use of conventional herbs to TCM granules. TCM granules are produced after TCM herbs undergo modern extraction and processing, and are now prescribed by a majority of TCM practitioners as therapeutic drugs. However, unlike herbs, there are no available standards or monographs for the quality control and regulation of these TCM granules. Our preliminary study of one such product, Cortex Magnoliae officinalis, suggests that there is significant variation in the quality of TCM granules despite being labelled as identical products. There is therefore a pressing need for the standardisation of TCM granule products at both local and international levels in order to better safeguard patients’ interests and integrate TCM into the mainstream healthcare system.