Metabolomics research on Tibetan medicinal substances

BackgroundTibetan medicinal substances (TMS) has a complete theory that is based on five source doctrines. The theories of “Liuwei”, “Baxing”, “Shiqi Gongxiao”, and “Sanhuawei” constitute the prominent core components of the five source doctrines with significant Tibetan characteristics.ObjectiveThis review summarizes the existing literature on the metabolomics and its use in TMS and offers recommendations for future research.MethodsStudies on TMS and the application of metabolomics on TMS are reviewed and summarized.The shortcomings of existing studies and recommendations for future studies are discussed.ConclusionsThe recent researches have studied on the theory of TMS. Metabolomics will be increasingly applied to the identification of compounds in TMS, and the resultant detection of biomarkers will help elucidate the metabolic pathways of these substances.