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Chinese medicinal herbs for sore throatShi Y, Gu R, Liu C, Ni J, Wu T
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SummaryChinese medicinal herbs for sore throatSore throat is a widespread acute respiratory tract illness affecting all age groups. In China, many Chinese herbal medicines are used to treat this illness. Seven studies involving 1253 participants were included in this review. Some Chinese medicinal herbs may facilitate the improvement of symptoms and increase the rate of recovery. The review authors were unable to find evidence good enough to recommend any herbal preparations from 54 studies. Future, well-designed trials are expected to provide stronger evidence to conclusively support or reject the use of Chinese medicinal herbs for sore throat.
This is a Cochrane review abstract and plain language summary, prepared and maintained by The Cochrane Collaboration, currently published in The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2009 Issue 4, Copyright © 2009 The Cochrane Collaboration. Published by John Wiley and Sons, Ltd.. The full text of the review is available in The Cochrane Library (ISSN 1464-780X).
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July 18. 2007 AbstractBackgroundChinese herbal medicines are commonly used to treat sore throat in China and among Chinese people worldwide. Their efficacy in treating sore throat has not previously been systematically reviewed. ObjectivesTo assess the efficacy and safety of Chinese herbal medicines for patients with sore throat. Search strategyWe searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) (The Cochrane Library, 2006, issue 3) which contains the Acute Respiratory Infections Group's specialised register; MEDLINE (1966 to August 2006); EMBASE (1980 to August 2006); AMED (1985 to August 2006); the Chinese Biomedical Database (CBM) (1975 to August 2006), and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) (1994 to August 2006). Selection criteriaWe only included randomised controlled trials (RCTs) assessing Chinese herbal medicines for the treatment of sore throat with the outcomes of recovery, inefficacy, and adverse events. Data collection and analysisOne review author contacted the trial authors of claimed RCTs. Three review authors extracted and analysed the data. Main resultsSeven trials involving 1253 participants were included. All trials were identified as being of methodologically poor quality (C category). All of the Chinese herbal preparations in this review were inadequately characterised and were assessed in one trial only. It is highly likely that there was selection bias or detection bias, or both, in all of the included trials. Conflict of interest may have been another factor in producing a positive result in three studies as the prepared drugs were made in the trial author's hospital. We did not perform a meta-analysis and the results of the studies are reported separately. Three formulations were shown to be superior to the control in improving recovery: Ertong Qingyan Jiere Koufuye was more effective than Fufang Shuanghua Koufuye for acute pharyngitis (OR 1.54, 95% Cl 1.11 to 5.74); Yanhouling mixture was more effective than the gentamicin atomised inhalation for acute pharyngitis (OR 5.39, 95% CI 2.69 to 10.81) for acute pharyngitis; and Qinganlan Liyan Hanpian was more effective than Fufang Caoshanhu Hanpian for chronic pharyngitis (OR 2.25, 95% CI 1.08 to 4.67). Four four formulations were shown to be equal in efficacy to the control. Authors' conclusionsBased on the existing evidence included in this review, the efficacy of Chinese herbal medicine for treating sore throat is controversial and questionable. We cannot recommend any kind of Chinese medical herbal formulation as an effective remedy for sore throat, due to the lack of high quality clinical trials. |