REVIEW School of Pharmaceutical Sciences1, Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine; The Affiliated Hospital of Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine2; Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine3, Jinan, PR China A review about industrialization of Chinese materia medica decoction pieces Z. CHAO1,#, S. XIAOCHEN1,#, W. SHUYUE1, S. XIAO1, Y. YAOHUI1, G. FEI2,*, S. LEI3,* Received July 17, 2020, accepted August 14, 2020 *Corresponding authors: Fei Guo, The Affiliated Hospital of Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jinan 250011, PR China
[email protected] Lei Shi, Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jinan 250355, PR China
[email protected] #Chao Zhang and Xiao-Chen Sun contributed equally to this paper. Pharmazie 75: 540-547 (2020) doi:10.1691/ph.2020.0647 Chinese materia medica decoction pieces (CMMDPs), one of the three pillars of the Chinese materia medica industry, are a key link in the Chinese materia medica industrial chain. Industrialization is the only way for the modernization of CMMDPs. This review mainly summarizes the characteristics, history, current situation and prospect of CMMDPs industry, providing a new reference for promoting the flourishing development of the industrialization of CMMDPs and for serving massive health industry. The literature was collected from databases including Web of Science, PubMed, Elsevier and CNKI (Chinese). CMMDPs industry has the char- acteristics of regionalism, resource dependency, customer diversity and low industrial concentration. Deeply processed products include traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) formula granules, small-packed decoction pieces, ultrafine decoction pieces, puffed decoction pieces, compressed decoction pieces and instant decoction pieces. Integration of treatment and processing at the place of origin is emerging.