Evidence map›Paper›PMID 32622723›Full record

SynthesisPharmacological research2020

Chinese herbal medicine for coronavirus disease 2019: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Xingjiang Xiong, Pengqian Wang, Kelei Su, William C Cho, Yanwei Xing

Open access · bronzeAbstract readMeta-AnalysisSystematic Review
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Synthesis in Pharmacological research, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 79 papers, 17 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
79citing papers in PubMed, 17 pooled it
23.5field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

79 citing papers in PubMed, 17 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 155 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026
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  4. Herbal medicine for COVID-19: An overview of systematic reviews and meta-analysis.Phytomedicine : international journal of phytotherapy and phytopharmacology · 2022
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19 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.

Xingjiang XiongDepartment of Cardiovascular Care Unit, Guang'Anmen Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing, China. Electronic address: xiongxingjiangtcm@163.com.
Pengqian WangInstitute of Chinese Materia Medica, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, South Small Street 16#, Dongzhimen Inside, Dongcheng District, Beijing, China; Key Laboratory of Chinese Internal Medicine of Ministry of Education and Beijing, Dongzhimen Hospital Affiliated to Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, South Small Street 16#, Dongzhimen Inside, Dongcheng District, Beijing, China. Electronic address: pengqian.wang@163.com.
Kelei SuDepartment of Respiration, Jiangsu Province Hospital on Integration of Chinese and Western Medicine Affiliated to Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Jiangsu, China; Department of Respiration, Jiangsu Branch of China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Jiangsu, China.
William C ChoDepartment of Clinical Oncology, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Kowloon, Hong Kong. Electronic address: chocs@ha.org.hk.
Yanwei XingDepartment of Cardiovascular Care Unit, Guang'Anmen Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing, China. Electronic address: xingyanwei12345@163.com.
Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College · CNDongzhimen Hospital Affiliated to Beijing University of Chinese Medicine · CNGuang’anmen Hospital · CNNanjing University of Chinese Medicine · CNQueen Elizabeth Hospital · CN

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Currently, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which can lead to severe respiratory failure and death, is now a global pandemic with no specific anti-viral drugs or vaccines. However, It is worth noting that traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), especially Chinese herbal medicine (CHM), has been widely applied in mainland China since outbreak, bringing new hope for the prevention and control of COVID-19. A comprehensive literature searching was conducted in 7 electronic databases from their inception up to June 21, 2020 to evaluate the efficacy and safety of CHM for COVID-19. Eighteen randomized controlled trials (RCTs) involving 2275 patients were enrolled. Most of CHMs were originated from classical Chinese herbal formulas. Liquoric Root (Gancao, Radix Glycyrrhizae), Baical Skullcap Root (Huangqin, Radix Scutellariae Baicalensis), Pinellia Rhizome (Banxia, Rhizoma Pinelliae Tematae), Forsythia Fruit (Lianqiao, Fructus Forsythiae Suspensae), and Bitter Apricot Seed (Kuxingren, Semen Armeniacae Amarum) were most frequently used Chinese herbs. The most commonly used dosage formulation was decoction. Our meta-analyses found that comparing CHM group and conventional western medicine group, CHM group has improvements in several clinical parameters including lung CT, clinical cure rate, ranging from mild to critical cases, length of hospital stay, total score of clinical symptoms, fever reduction time, symptom score of fever, number of cough reduction cases, symptom score of cough, number of fatigue reduction cases, symptom score of fatigue, disappearing time of fatigue, TCM syndrome, viral nucleic acid testing, and inflammatory biomarkers (C-reactive protein). Besides, no severe adverse effects was identified by CHM. CHM, especially classical Chinese herbal formulas, could be used as potential candidates for COVID-19 in this battle.

Indexed as

Coronavirus InfectionsCOVID-19COVID-19 Drug TreatmentDrugs, Chinese HerbalHumansMedicine, Chinese TraditionalPandemicsPneumonia, ViralRandomized Controlled Trials as TopicDrugs, Chinese HerbalChinese herbal medicineCoronavirus disease 2019Meta-analysisRandomized controlled trialSystematic reviewTraditional Chinese medicine

Identifiers

PMID32622723
PMCPMC7331568
OpenAlexW3038451260

What Socratic holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.