The effective material basis of traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) is an indispensable part of studies on TCM, and each technology has its advantages and disadvantages. The target constituent knock-out/knock-in technology has attracted much attention since it was proposed because of its unique advantages of regarding the extract of the formula as a whole, which can better reflect the characteristics of multi-component and multi-target integration and regulation of TCM. This method investigated the contribution of target constituent to the overall efficacy of a TCM by analyzing the changes in efficacy of the remaining formula before and after knock-out/knock-in of the target constitution. The application of this model not only facilitates studies of the effective constituents of TCM, but also help to develop the quality control standard of TCM. However, the application of this model is restricted due to the limitation of target constituent separation technology. By reviewing the literatures in recent years, this study summarized the research process and application of this method for a reference.
Keywords: effective material basis; knock-in; knock-out; target constituent; traditional Chinese medicine.