Metabonomics and its application prospect in TCM study

Metabonomics, characterized with the biochemical phenotype and end-point amplification of the global biological and functional status, is playing a substantial role in the study of traditional Chinese medicines (TCM). TCM is based on "holism" philosophy as in the case of "omics" theories. Based on continued development of the analytical platforms including nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), spectroscopy and mass spectrometry(MS) in combination with powerful chemometric software, the application of metabonomics strategy into the study of the scientific questions of TCM including syndrome differentiation, pharmacological and toxicological evaluation, quality control of herbal drugs and individual therapy has become more and more widespread. Here, the prospect and some critical problems of using metabonomic approach for TCM study were highlighted based on a general review of the recent progress in this domain.