Chinese herbal formulas are frequently used to treat the common cold in China. Until now, their efficacy has not been systematically reviewed. The effectiveness and safety of Chinese herbs for the common cold was researched extensively.
The search began at the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) (The Cochrane Library, Issue 3, 2006) which contains the Acute Respiratory Infections Group's specialized register; MEDLINE (1966 to July 2006); EMBASE (1980 to March 2006); AMED (1985 to July 2006); and the Chinese Biomedical Database (CBM) (1975 to July 2005). Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were selected studying the efficacy of Chinese herbal formulas for the treatment of the common cold, irrespective of publication status or language. Four review authors telephoned original trial authors of the RCTs identified by the searches to verify the randomization procedure. Two review authors extracted and analyzed data from the trials which met the inclusion criteria.
The results of fourteen studies involving 2440 patients were included, including studies used as "effective drugs" as controls; however, the efficacy of these control drugs was not reported. Different Chinese herbal preparations were tested in nearly all trials; in only one was a Chinese herbal preparation tested twice. In six studies, five herbal preparations were found to be more effective at enhancing recovery than the control; and in the other eight studies, five herbal preparations were shown to be equal to the control. There was a strong probability of different biases in all of the included studies. The authors concluded that Chinese herbal medicines may shorten the symptomatic phase in patients with the common cold.
Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2007 Jan 24;(1):CD004782.
