Data Mining-Based Analysis for Salt-Related Traditional Chinese Medicine Herbal Formulas in the Treatment of Urogenital Dysfunctions

To analyze the rules of salt-related traditional Chinese medicine herbal formulas of urogenital dysfunctions using data mining, the results could provide novel prescriptions and give suggestions to clinical application. The data mining methods used in this study including frequency analysis, cluster analysis and association rule. A total of 108 formulas involving 141 herbs were included in this study. The most frequently used herb is Poria (Fuling). The top three categories were deficiency-tonifying herbs (34.07 %), astringent herbs (11.85 %) and emetic herbs (10.09 %). The properties of the herbs were mainly being warm (403), cold (334) and calm (304). The tastes of the herbs were mainly sweet (699) and bitter (316). The main meridian tropisms were kidney meridian of foot-shaoyin (726), liver meridian of foot-Jueyi (418), spleen meridian of foot-Taiyin (406). The main formulas for spermatorrhea are Yangxin Zishen pill (71). The top two formulas of stranguria were Bixie Fenqing decoction (1354). According to the cluster analysis, the high-frequency herbs were divided into 8 salt-related categories. According to association rule analysis, 16 common salt-related couplets medicines were obtained. The treatment of urogenital dysfunctions is mostly clearing, tonifying and astringing methods. The law of medicines compatibility and the application of meridian ushering herbs have high reference value for the clinical treatment of urogenital dysfunctions.