With a multi-ingredient and multi-target-pathway pharmacological action, Chinese medicine compounds are compatible with the complex pathogenesis of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease to mitigate it.
In the analysis of 88 herbal prescriptions screened out by Ding et al. collected from databases, the top 3 drug combinations are “Hawthorn-Rhizoma Alismatis”, “Rhizoma Alismatis-Radix Salvia Miltiorrhiza” and “Hawthorn-Radix Salvia Miltiorrhiza”, with a high frequency of over 40 in 88 prescriptions. The digestant drug Shan Zha (Hawthorn) mainly improve lipid metabolism and insulin resistance, and protect against oxidative stress in NAFLD. The damp-clearing drug Ze Xie (Rhizoma Alismatis) could alleviate lipidosis as well. Besides, it also has effects on liver regeneration, inflammation and autophagy, which supplement to the effect of Hawthorn. On the other hand, the blood-activating and stasis-eliminating drug Dan Shen (Radix Salvia Miltiorrhiza) have more effects on lipid metabolism, oxidative stress, inflammation, cell death and fibrosis. These are complementary to the effects of Hawthorn and/or Rhizoma Alismatis. As shown in Fig. 3, the combinations of three herbs play a more comprehensive role in treating NAFLD than single herb.
