A Song of Ice and Fire: Cold and Hot Properties of Traditional Chinese Medicines

2021 Jan 19   Frontiers in Pharmacology   Liu J, Feng W, Peng C

Cold and hot properties of TCMs have played and will still play important roles in guiding TCM practitioners to combating human diseases. From ancient times to the present, people have been exploring the mystery of cold and hot properties of TCMs. In ancient times, the identification of cold and hot properties mainly depends on the healthy human’s direct feeling on a given TCM or the effects of TCMs on patients with cold or hot syndrome. Nowadays, some animal models (such as collagen-induced arthritis rats) and advanced technologies (such as network pharmacology) have been used to identify the cold and hot properties of TCMs. In recent years, phytochemical and pharmacologic research of cold and hot TCMs have indicated that although the chemical components are different, the representative cold TCMs all have antipyretic effects, and the typical hot TCMs all can promote thermogenesis. In addition, the studies on the mechanism related to the cold and hot properties have demonstrated that activating TRPM8 and inhibiting TRPV1 are the common mechanisms of the antipyretic effect of cold TCMs, and BAT activation and WAT browning are the common mechanisms of hot TCMs to promote thermogenesis. Although some progress has been made in understanding the cold and hot properties of TCMs, more and more studies are still needed to further explore the mechanism differences of TCMs with the same property.

Cold & Hot Theory Chinese Herbal Medicine
Added by Jinnan C. 23 Aug 2021