Context: Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) has been widely used in clinical practice to treat bone disease for thousands of years. They are cost-effective with fewer side effects and are more suitable for long-term use compared with chemically synthesized medicines.
Objective: Chinese herbal formula prescribed among the CHMs is safe, and it is an alternative medicine for bone-related diseases such as osteoporosis.
Methods: Science Direct and Google Scholar were used to search articles published. The input key words were CHM, osteoporosis, Chinese herbal formula, traditional Chinese medicine, single herb, multiple-herbs, and bone health. CHMs (single herb and formula) lacking sufficient proof and evidence in the literature were excluded and only those with high citation were retained.
Results: A brief review was summarized to indicate the application and the potential mechanism of single herb formula and multi-herb formula in treating the common bone-related diseases such as inflammation, fracture, osteopenia, and osteoporosis.
Conclusion: In order to ensure safety and efficacy of all these CHMs, the prescriptions with single herb and multi-component formula must be verified and ensured by reliable pharmacological and toxicological methods. Much more effort needs to be done for studying the standardization, safety evaluation, and mechanism exploration of herb formula as well as confirming the compatibility of these herbs which make one.
Keywords: Fracture; herbal formula; inflammation; osteoblast; osteoclast; osteoporosis.