Search Results (214)

Background/Objectives: Traditional East Asian medicine (TEAM), comprising traditional Korean medicine (TKM), traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), and Japanese Kampo, is increasingly recorded in electronic health records, and sharing these data depends on interoperability standards. Yet, TEAM concepts rest on conceptual foundations differing from those of biomedical standards. Prior reviews examined traditional medicine’s own systems, not how TEAM concepts fit into mainstream biomedical standards. This review examined how TEAM concepts have been mapped or modeled into international health informatics standards. Methods: Following JBI methodology and PRISMA-ScR guidelines with a Population, Concept, and Context framework, we searched PubMed, Embase, Scopus, and IEEE Xplore for English reports from January 2016 to March 2026, with gray literature and citation searching. Screening was conducted by a single reviewer with senior verification and a 10% inter-rater reliability check. Findings were synthesized descriptively by functional category and clinical object type. Results: Of 16,763 records, 10 studies (2017 to 2026) were included; seven addressed TCM, three TKM, and none Kampo. Terminology work predominated, most often SNOMED CT, UMLS, and MeSH. The OMOP Common Data Model was the only data model, and no exchange standard such as HL7 FHIR appeared. Representability followed a gradient by clinical object type: acupuncture points anchored directly to terminologies, whereas only 1 of 260 ICD-11 Chapter 26 patterns had a SNOMED CT equivalent. Symptoms and disorders fit only partially, and compound herbal medicines required extension or decomposition. Most studies supplemented standards locally, and none of their additions were incorporated into a released standard. Conclusions: The work identified here has centered on establishing shared meaning rather than moving data between systems, and because supplementation stays external, the same gaps recur. Because the search covered only English-language, internationally indexed reports, these findings, including the absence of Kampo, reflect internationally visible work rather than the full literature published in Chinese, Korean, and Japanese national databases. Priorities are upstreaming TEAM content, encoding it in exchange standards, and building dedicated content for patterns. Full article

Background and Objectives: Although herbal medicine-based obesity treatment programs are used in obesity management, empirical research on patient acceptability remains limited. This study examined acceptability of a Korean medicine-based obesity treatment program (KM-OBP) among patients who achieved predefined weight-loss targets in routine clinical care. Materials and Methods: Medical records and satisfaction survey data routinely collected during clinical practice at a single Korean medicine clinic were retrospectively analyzed. Patients had baseline body mass index (BMI) ≥ 30 kg/m² and achieved both ≥10% weight loss and BMI ≤ 23 kg/m² during follow-up. BMI trajectories and adverse-event occurrence were summarized descriptively. Satisfaction ratings were reported on a 5-point Likert scale, and free-text responses were retrospectively analyzed using the Theoretical Framework of Acceptability. Results: Of 3798 patients with a baseline BMI ≥ 30 kg/m² and at least two BMI measurements, 37 (0.97%) met the predefined targets; 16 completed the satisfaction survey. Mean BMI change from the first to last measurement was −8.9 kg/m², and median change was −8.8 kg/m² (interquartile range, −9.6 to −7.7). Common documented adverse events were constipation, nausea, and dizziness. Satisfaction ratings were descriptively high for the overall program, perceived helpfulness for obesity treatment, and herbal medicine. Among the 16 survey respondents, perceived weight-loss benefits, program structure, safety, and health improvement were described as facilitators of acceptability, whereas post-treatment weight regain, dietary burden, and financial concerns were described as barriers. Conclusions: The findings characterize satisfaction and reported acceptability experiences among survey respondents within a highly selected target-achieving cohort. Interpretation is limited by outcome-based selection, potential non-response bias, the small survey sample, and the single-center design. Full article

Cold hypersensitivity in hands and feet (CHHF) affects 20–52% of East Asian populations, is more prevalent in women, and is managed with vasodilators in Western medicine or herbal therapies in traditional East Asian medicine. This study was conducted to compare the pharmacological characteristics of two heat-clearing (HCHs, Scutellariae Radix and Coptidis Rhizoma) and two blood-tonifying (BTHs, Angelicae Sinensis Radix and Paeoniae Radix Alba) herbs used for CHHF. Candidate herbs were selected based on herbology classifications, PubMed searches, and the Korean Medicine Clinical Practice Guideline for CHHF. A total of 61 active compounds and 323 corresponding protein targets with CHHF were retrieved from the traditional Chinese medicine systems pharmacology database and analysis platform (TCMSP), standardized via UniProt, and intersected with CHHF-related genes from GeneCards. Protein–protein interaction networks were constructed, core targets identified, and functional enrichment analyses performed using Reactome databases. A total of 166 herb–CHHF common targets were identified, including 24 shared across all four herbs. HCHs were primarily enriched in hemostasis-, immune-, and signaling-related pathways, whereas BTHs were associated with immune regulation, metabolism, and neuronal modulation. Notably, Scutellariae Radix and Paeoniae Radix Alba showed substantial overlap in enriched pathways. These findings suggest that HCHs and BTHs may be associated with distinct yet potentially relevant molecular mechanisms in CHHF. However, because the present analysis was conducted at the single-herb level, these findings cannot be directly generalized to the clinical use of multi-herb formulas and should be interpreted as hypothesis-generating. Full article

Processing herbal medicine generates substantial quantities of by-products that are discarded as waste. These residues may retain polysaccharides, flavonoids, saponins, terpenoids, and other constituents with pharmacological relevance. This review discusses the bioactive potential of by-products derived from single traditional Chinese and Korean herbal medicines, with emphasis on antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and immunomodulatory mechanisms documented in preclinical in vivo studies. Representative in vivo evidence suggests that selected residues, marc fractions, fermentation products, and re-extracted by-products were reported to modulate oxidative stress markers, inflammatory cytokines, immune responses, and tissue-protective pathways across diverse experimental models. Processing method appears to be a key determinant of activity, as fermentation, high-temperature/high-pressure treatment, re-extraction, and targeted purification may enhance or diversify residual bioactivity. Current evidence remains limited by inconsistent chemical characterization, heterogeneous animal models, and incomplete reporting of experimental design. Re-evaluating herbal medicine processing by-products as bioactive resources may support sustainable herbal medicine manufacturing and circular bioeconomy frameworks. Full article

Background/Objectives: Liuwei Dihuang (LWDH) is a classical plant-derived herbal formula widely used for cognitive decline. This study aimed to evaluate its efficacy and safety in cognitive disorders and to explore its potential pharmacological mechanisms using network pharmacology. Methods: We searched 11 databases through November 2024 for randomized controlled trials comparing LWDH plus conventional therapy with conventional therapy alone in cognitive disorders. Meta-analysis was performed for clinical outcomes, and herb–compound–target and disease-target datasets were integrated to identify core molecular modules. Results: Twelve randomized controlled trials involving 1137 participants were included. Adjunctive LWDH was associated with improvements in Mini-Mental State Examination scores (MD = 2.34, 95% CI 0.88–3.79), activities of daily living, and quality of life. However, substantial heterogeneity and methodological limitations, including unclear randomization and blinding, were observed across studies, indicating a potential risk of bias. Fewer adverse events were reported in the LWDH plus conventional treatment group, although reporting quality was limited. The overall risk of bias was judged as “some concerns”. Network pharmacology analysis identified a broad set of overlapping genes between LWDH-associated targets and cognitive disorder-related genes, which were further refined through filtering procedures. Subsequent analyses suggested associations with pathways related to neurodegeneration, apoptosis, and central nervous system function; however, these findings are exploratory and based on in silico predictions. Conclusions: LWDH may be associated with potential adjunctive benefits in cognitive disorders. However, given the methodological limitations and clinical heterogeneity of the included studies, the findings should be interpreted with caution. The proposed pharmacological mechanisms are exploratory and require further validation. Well-designed randomized controlled trials are needed to establish more robust evidence. Full article

This study evaluated a tool-augmented large language model (LLM) agent system utilizing a traditional Asian medicine (TAM) metadata. A structured information comprising 4780 entries across five entity types (herbs, syndromes, TCM symptoms, modern medicine symptoms, and acupoints) was constructed. Four LLMs (GPT-5.2, GPT-5-mini, Claude Sonnet 4.6, and Claude Haiku 4.5) were evaluated under baseline, non-agentic retrieval (RAG), and tool-augmented (agent) conditions using two public benchmarks: TCMBench (1300 items) and TCMEval-SDT (600 items). McNemar’s test and bootstrap confidence intervals were applied to examine performance differences. Tool augmentation showed a nominally significant improvement for GPT-5-mini on TCMBench term-related items (+4.5 percentage points on paired items, McNemar p = 0.034, 95% CI [+0.9, +8.5] pp), while Claude Sonnet 4.6 showed a nominally significant decline on SDT pathogenesis (−0.038, bootstrap p = 0.006). The agent condition outperformed the non-agentic RAG baseline for GPT-5-mini on TCMBench (agent 85.6% vs. RAG 77.7% vs. baseline 75.4%), suggesting that selective, autonomous tool invocation is more effective than fixed retrieval. Tool usage rates varied substantially across models (2–87%), with moderate usage (30–40%) associated with the most consistent gains. These findings provide empirical evidence on the potential and limitations of metadata-based tool augmentation for LLMs in the TAM domain. Full article

Hepatic cirrhosis is a progressive chronic liver disease driven by sustained inflammation, cell death, and tissue remodeling, and effective disease-modifying options remain limited. Here, we applied a multiscale interactome framework to prioritize candidate herbs and active compounds for hepatic cirrhosis. Herb–compound associations were collected from the OASIS database and mapped to experimentally supported compound–target interactions (DrugBank/TTD/STITCH), while cirrhosis-related proteins were curated from DisGeNET. Using a biased random-walk algorithm, we generated disease and herb/compound diffusion profiles on the multiscale network and ranked candidates by profile similarity and target overlap. Among the top-ranked herbs, Magnoliae Cortex, Notoginseng Radix et Rhizoma, Polygoni Cuspidati Rhizoma et Radix, and Capsici Fructus were supported by prior literature, whereas several high-ranking herbs lacked curated evidence and were highlighted as underexplored candidates, including Saposhnikoviae Radix and Fritillariae Cirrhosae Bulbus. Enrichment analyses indicated convergence on inflammatory and innate-immune pathways (TNF, Toll-like receptor, NF-κB) and apoptosis-related processes, with additional signals involving HIF-1 and PI3K–Akt pathways. Disease-focused subnetworks suggested mechanistic hypotheses for evidence-lacking compounds, including bergapten, oleic acid, and octadecanoic acid. Overall, we systematically prioritize herbal candidates and provides a mechanistic basis for follow-up validation in hepatic cirrhosis. Full article

Cannabis seed (CS), also known as hemp seed, is a nutrient-dense plant-derived food material rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids and bioactive components with reported anti-inflammatory properties. However, potential nutritional effects of CS on acute pancreatitis (AP), an inflammation-driven disease with limited dietary management strategies, have not yet been investigated. In this study, we examined the effects of dietary CS extract in a cerulein-induced AP mouse model. CS extract (5, 10, or 50 mg/kg) or vehicle (dimethyl sulfoxide) was orally administered 1 h prior to cerulein injection, and mice were euthanized 6 h after the final challenge. Oral supplementation with CS significantly attenuated AP severity, indicated by reducing pancreatic weight-to-body weight ratio, serum amylase and lipase activities, histopathological pancreatic injury, and pancreatic myeloperoxidase activity. CS administration alleviated AP-associated acute lung injury; markedly suppressing pancreatic mRNA expression of proinflammatory cytokines, including interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6, and tumor necrosis factor-α. High-performance liquid chromatography analysis identified α-linolenic acid, an omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid, as a major nutritional component of CS extract. Collectively, these findings suggest that CS supplementation may contribute to nutritional modulation of inflammatory responses and systemic organ injury in experimental AP, supporting its potential as a functional food ingredient in inflammation-associated pancreatic disorders. Full article

Background/Objectives:Aster (A.) koraiensis (Nakai) Kitamura (synonym Gymnaster koraiensis), commonly referred to as Korean starwort, belongs to the composite (Asteraceae) family. This endemic perennial species is cultivated for its long-lasting ornamental flowers and for its young leaves and stems, which serve as a nutritious food source. It grows abundantly across the southern and central regions of the Korean Peninsula, including Jeju Island. The presence of diverse secondary metabolites such as phenolic compounds, polyacetylenes, benzofurans, flavonoids, triperpenoidal saponins, and sesquiterpenoids contributes to its importance in both traditional medicine and modern pharmacology. To date, no comprehensive review has been conducted to summarize its phytoconstituents and pharmacological potential. Methods: A non-systematic electronic search of English-language articles using A. koraiensis and its synonyms as keywords was conducted to assess its bioactive constituents and health-promoting potential. Results: This review seeks to compile and discuss the health-promoting activities of A. koraiensis, including its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetic, anti-tumor, antithrombotic, anticoagulant, anti-angiogenic, antinociceptive, anti-metabolic syndrome, antiviral, hepatoprotective, and cognitive function-enhancing properties, based on evidence from cell and animal studies. To date, more than 75 phytoconstituents have been purified and characterized from this plant. Conclusions: The extensive pharmacological activities of A. koraiensis highlight its medicinal importance. Future studies should concentrate on the separation, identification, and quantification of its bioactive metabolites, alongside an in-depth investigation of its potential health-enhancing properties. Full article

Background/Objectives: Mecasin (KCHO-1) is a standardized multi-herb formulation containing diverse bioactive compounds predicted to engage multiple molecular targets. This study applied an integrative network pharmacology approach to explore how Mecasin may interact with Alzheimer’s disease (AD)-related molecular networks. Methods: Bioactive constituents from 9 herbs were screened through OASIS and PubChem, and their predicted targets were cross-referenced with 8886 AD-associated genes from GeneCards. Overlapping genes were analyzed using protein–protein interaction mapping, Gene Ontology, and KEGG to identify potential Mecasin–AD core nodes and pathways. Co-expression, co-regulation, and molecular docking analyses were performed to further characterize mechanistic relevance. Results: Network integration identified 6 core genes—AKT1, STAT3, IL6, TNF, EGFR, and IL1B—positioned within signaling pathways related to neuronal survival, inflammatory regulation, and cellular stress responses, including FoxO, JAK–STAT, MAPK, and TNF pathways. Molecular docking suggested that several Mecasin compounds may interact with targets such as AKT1 and TNF. Conclusions: These in silico findings indicate that Mecasin, a multi-component formulation containing numerous phytochemicals that generate broad compound–target associations, may interface with interconnected neuroimmune pathways relevant to AD. While exploratory, the results highlight potential multi-target mechanisms that merit further investigation and provide a systems-level framework to inform future experimental validation. Full article

Background: Allergic rhinitis (AR) is a common immunological disorder characterized by nasal symptoms and impaired quality of life. Despite advances in pharmacotherapy, symptom control often remains inadequate. Herbal medicine atomized inhalation (HMAI), a modern adaptation of traditional East Asian fumigation, may offer an effective adjunct or alternative therapy. This systematic review and meta-analysis evaluated the clinical efficacy and safety of HMAI, emphasizing its role as a localized drug delivery system. Methods: Six databases were searched through 28 April 2025, for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) assessing HMAI for AR. Outcomes were pooled with random-effects meta-analysis; risk of bias and certainty of evidence were evaluated using Cochrane Risk of Bias 2.0 and GRADE. Results: Fourteen RCTs (n = 1606) met the inclusion criteria. HMAI significantly improved total effective rate compared with Western medicine (risk ratio = 1.20, 95% CI 1.09–1.32) and enhanced symptom relief when combined with Western or herbal treatments. However, the overall certainty of evidence ranged from moderate to very low due to methodological limitations across trials. Conclusions: HMAI may offer symptomatic benefits for patients with AR, particularly when used as an adjunct to existing therapies. Given the substantial variability and high risk of bias among included studies, these findings should be interpreted cautiously. Rigorous, placebo-controlled trials with standardized protocols are required to clarify the therapeutic role of HMAI in AR management. Full article

Background: Precise localization of acupuncture points (acupoints) is crucial for the clinical success of Traditional Korean Medicine (TKM). Traditional methods that rely on visual inspection and palpation are subjective and prone to inter- and intra-observer differences, making standardization challenging. The progress of data-driven localization techniques is also limited by the scarcity of annotated datasets and inconsistent labeling quality. Objective: This study presents MetaAcuPoint, a synthetic dataset created to overcome these limitations by providing high-fidelity, anatomically consistent hand images for acupoint localization. Methods: MetaAcuPoint was generated using MetaHuman avatars within Unreal Engine, resulting in 900 RGB hand images. Anatomically aligned, bone-attached sockets were implemented for five diagnostically relevant hand acupoints, ensuring millimeter-level precision and spatial consistency across various hand poses. Dataset validity was assessed by training a high-resolution network (HRNet-W48) within the MMPose framework and testing its performance on real-world forearm images. Results: The synthetic-trained model achieved a mean distance error (MDE) of 5.67 ± 3.13 pixels, closely aligning with the real-data baseline at 4.81 ± 2.85 pixels. Adding synthetic samples to real data further enhanced performance (MDE: 4.95 pixels). In contrast, manually annotated synthetic images yielded poorer results (MDE: 12.76 pixels), emphasizing the advantages of automated anatomical annotation. Generalization tests across four external datasets confirmed that the synthetic data-trained model outperformed the real-data-trained model, maintaining higher accuracy (MDE: 5.84–6.45 mm vs. 10.63–15.80 mm). Conclusions: MetaAcuPoint demonstrates the first example of synthetic-to-real generalization for hand acupoint localization. By combining photorealistic rendering with anatomically grounded annotation, the dataset offers a reliable resource to promote standardized, data-driven approaches in acupuncture research and practice. Full article

Background: National Health Insurance Herbal prescriptions (NHPs) are widely used; however, their multi-component composition complicates mechanistic interpretation and impedes the development of evidence-based approaches in traditional medicine and healthcare policy. In this study, we applied a systems biology approach to link molecular mechanisms to clinical effects. Methods: From 56 NHPs, 13 with sufficient clinical evidence were selected. Multi-layer networks connecting herbs, ingredients, genes, and diseases were constructed using SymMap, with interactions filtered for oral bioavailability and statistical significance (false discovery rate < 0.05). Network-predicted diseases were validated against a clinically validated benchmark using permutation-based null model analysis, and gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was used to identify key molecular pathways. Results: Networks predicted an average of 1359 diseases per NHP, reflecting their polypharmacology. Importantly, the overall predicted disease sets for 10 of 13 NHPs showed statistically significant overlap with known clinical uses (p < 0.05, several with p < 0.001). GSEA indicated that NHPs commonly modulate three biological axes—hormone–metabolic regulation, neural signaling, and cell proliferation control. Conclusions: NHPs act as potential systemic homeostasis regulators. Our study introduces a computationally validated framework integrating network pharmacology with permutation-based statistical testing, providing a data-driven rationale for NHP use. These computational findings are exploratory and require future biological and clinical validation. Full article

Reliable acupoint localization is essential for developing artificial intelligence (AI) and extended reality (XR) tools in traditional Korean medicine; however, conventional annotation of 2D images often suffers from inter- and intra-annotator variability. This study presents a low-cost dual-camera imaging system that fuses infrared (IR) and RGB views on a Raspberry Pi 5 platform, incorporating an IR ink pen in conjunction with a 780 nm emitter array to standardize point visibility. Among the tested marking materials, the IR ink showed the highest contrast and visibility under IR illumination, making it the most suitable for acupoint detection. Five feature detectors (SIFT, ORB, KAZE, AKAZE, and BRISK) were evaluated with two matchers (FLANN and BF) to construct representative homography pipelines. Comparative evaluations across multiple camera-to-surface distances revealed that KAZE + FLANN achieved the lowest mean 2D error (1.17 ± 0.70 px) and the lowest mean aspect-aware error (0.08 ± 0.05%) while remaining computationally feasible on the Raspberry Pi 5. In hand-image experiments across multiple postures, the dual-camera registration maintained a mean 2D error below ~3 px and a mean aspect-aware error below ~0.25%, confirming stable and reproducible performance. The proposed framework provides a practical foundation for generating high-quality acupoint datasets, supporting future AI-based localization, XR integration, and automated acupuncture-education systems. Full article

Background/Objectives: Korean medicine healthcare (KMHC), a form of traditional medicine including acupuncture and herbal medicine, is widely utilized by patients with intervertebral disc disease (IVDD). With the increasing use of real-world evidence (RWE) in the medical field, this study aims to derive RWE on KMHC utilization and its associated factors in patients with IVDD. Methods: Data from 495 individuals who received outpatient healthcare for IVDD regardless of the purpose such as treatment, examination, rehabilitation, monitoring, or prescription were analyzed using the 2022 Korea Health Panel Survey (KHPS). Multinomial logistic regression analyses were performed to identify factors associated with healthcare use for IVDD. Regression models were constructed by sequentially adding predisposing, enabling, and need factors following Andersen’s behavioral model. All statistical analyses accounted for the complex survey design of the KHPS using survey sampling weights. Results: Individuals aged 45–59 years were less likely to use both KMHC and conventional medicine healthcare (CMHC) for IVDD compared to those aged 19–44 years (adjusted odds ratio [95% confidence interval], 0.28 [0.09, 0.89]). People with disabilities showed lower utilization of both KMHC and CMHC for IVDD compared to those without disabilities (0.27 [0.09, 0.81]). Individuals who were employed (2.37 [1.06, 5.3]) or perceived their health status as fair (3.05 [1.17, 8]) or poor/very poor (6.13 [2.04, 18.45]) were more inclined to use both KMHC and CMHC for IVDD. Individuals who engaged in regular physical activities (2.65 [1.19, 5.9]) or had shoulder joint diseases (3.71 [1.22, 11.29]) or other spine-related diseases (2.63 [1.16, 5.96]) were more inclined to use KMHC-only for IVDD. Conclusions: This study identified significant demographic and health-related factors influencing KMHC utilization for IVDD. These findings emphasize the need for tailored healthcare policies regarding KMHC for IVDD for effective resource distribution. Full article