The mechanism of action of traditional Chinese medicine in the prevention and treatment of influenza

Abstract. Influenza, because of its virus is highly contagious and easy to mutate, has caused many outbreaks around the world. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been used in China for the prevention and treatment of influenza since ancient times, and now more and more people choose to use TCMs to prevent and treat influenza in their daily life. At present, researchers have also tried to study the mechanism of action of TCMs against influenza virus from multiple angles, but there are still many problems in the existing research that deserve further improvement. This article summarizes the researches on the mechanism of action of various TCMs against influenza virus by researchers at home and abroad in recent years and divides the mechanism of action of TCM against influenza virus, which according to the pathogenic mechanism of influenza virus, into two categories: direct inhibition and indirect inhibition. At the same time, this article found that many TCMs can also reduce the damage caused by viral infections by inhibiting the body's excessive immune response. This article also found that there are still some problems in the current research, such as unclear active ingredients, unclear effective dosage, lack of clinical trials, lack of comparative experiments between Chinese and Western medicines, and lack of research on influenza virus B, etc., which are hoped to be focused on in the future researches.