Metabolomics Deciphering Therapeutic Effects and Mechanism of Traditional Chinese Medicines

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), an ancient medical system, has the advantages of multi-targeting and multi-ingredient preparations, and is different from modern pharmacology. However, because of the complexity of TCM and the limitation of present investigation method, the research for deciphering the scientific basis and systematic features of TCM is difficult to go further. Metabolomics has a significant increased study in recent years and enables mapping of early biochemical changes in disease and hence provides an opportunity to develop predictive biomarkers. Moreover, its method and design resemble those of traditional Chinese medicine. Therefore, it can provide useful tools for exploring essence of TCM, and will help to in-depth understand Chinese medicine syndromes. In this mini-paper, particular attention will be paid to the past successes in applications of robust metabolomics to contribute to small metabolites discovery in TCM development.