Overview of the quality standard research of traditional Chinese medicine

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been widely used for the prevention and treatment of various diseases for a long time in China. Due to its proven efficacy, wide applications, and low side effect, TCM has increasingly attracted worldwide attention. However, one of the biggest challenges facing the clinical practice of TCM is the uncontrollable quality. In this review, the progress of the development and the current status of quality standard as well as new quality control techniques introduced in Chinese Pharmacopoeia (2010 edition), such as liquid chromatography hyphenated mass spectrometry (LC-MS), fingerprint, quantitative analysis of multicomponents by single-marker (QAMS), thin layer chromatography bio-autographic assay (TLC-BAA), and DNA molecular marker technique, are briefly overviewed.