Cancer, the leading cause of death in the world nowadays, is a major public health problem. The therapeutic efficacy of cancer is still unsatisfactory despite the development of various treatments. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) formulas are a vital therapeutic strategy and new treatment approach for cancer, as they exhibit prospective antitumor potential with multiple targets, multiple signaling pathways and less side effects. In this review, the anticancer functions of a variety of TCM formulas are introduced. The antitumor mechanisms of different TCM formulas are analyzed and summarized. Additionally, the opportunities and challenges of the anti-tumor TCM formulas in the future were also involved. We carried out an extensive review of 173 reports published in PubMed since 1993 to provide support for further research and development of TCM formulas for the therapy of tumor.

Epimedium herb is one of the most vital traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs), which is used for “nourishing the kidney and reinforcing the Yang”. In the guidance of TCM theory, Epimedium herb is usually processed with lamb oil to increase its efficacy. The contents of active ingredients in different Epimedium are significantly varied, which may derive from their different species, regions and processing methods. In this research, 13 batches of raw Epimedium collected from 6 provinces were identified. After optimization of the processing method of Epimedium, a liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) method for simultaneous determination of 16 compounds was established to evaluate the quality of raw and processed. Then the multivariate statistical technique was applied to compare different batches of Epimedium based on the LC–MS/MS data. As a conclusion, the herbs collected from 6 areas were ascribed to 5 species by microscopic and appearance features. Meanwhile, all of the raw and processed samples were classified by partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) based on the 16 analyzed compounds. The comparison results indicate that processing and species both have important influences on Epimedium compositions contents.

Cortex Periplocae, as a traditional Chinese herbal medicine, has been widely used for autoimmune diseases, especially rheumatoid arthritis. Due to its potential pharmaceutical values, more studies about the biological activities of Cortex Periplocae have been conducted recently. Meanwhile, the adverse reaction of Cortex Periplocae is not a negligible problem in clinic. In this article, we reviewed a series of articles and summarized the recent studies of Cortex Periplocae in the areas of phytochemistry and pharmacology. More than 100 constituents have been isolated and identified from Cortex Periplocae, including steroids, cardiac glycosides, terpenoids, and fatty acid compounds. The crude extracts of Cortex Periplocae and its active compounds exhibit various biological activities, such as cardiotonic effect, anticancer action, and anti-inflammatory effect. This paper aims to provide an overall review on the bioactive ingredients, pharmacological effect, and toxicity of this plant. Furthermore, this review suggests investigating and developing new clinical usages according to the above pharmacological effects.