ABSTRACT
Respiratory diseases, including asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), bronchitis, bronchiolitis, and respiratory tract infections, are one of the most common health problems in the world. Data from the World Health Organization [1] showed that lower respiratory tract infections (LRTI) and COPD are ranked third and fourth, respectively, in the top ten global death causes. In China, respiratory diseases are responsible for ~14% of hospitalizations and 13%–16% of deaths (excluding lung cancer). Uniquely, apart from conventional chemical drugs used for the standard treatment, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has also been playing an important role in the primary care and rst-line treatment of patients with respiratory diseases in China [2]. Although the sales of TCMs accounted only for less than 20% of the total Chinese pharmaceutical market, the market share of TCMs for the treatment of respiratory diseases was as high as 45% in 2011. In particular, among the drug sales in hospitals, 10.88% of TCM were used for respiratory diseases, markedly higher than 2.71% of chemical drugs [3].
