The field of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) represents a vast and largely untapped resource for modern medicine. Exemplified by the success of the antimalarial artemisinin, the recent years have seen a rapid increase in the understanding and application of TCM-derived herbs and formulations for evidence-based therapy. In this review, we summarise and discuss the developmental history, clinical background and molecular basis of an action for several representative TCM-derived medicines, including artemisinin, arsenic trioxide, berberine andSalvia miltiorrhizaor Danshen. Through this, we highlight important examples of how TCM-derived medicines have already contributed to modern medicine, and discuss potential avenues for further research.

中文翻译：

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中医为现代医学带来了什么？

中医药（TCM）领域代表了现代医学的巨大且很大程度上未开发的资源。以抗疟药青蒿素的成功为例证，近年来，人们对中药源性草药和制剂在循证治疗中的认识和应用迅速增加。在这篇综述中，我们总结和讨论了几种具有代表性的中药衍生药物的发展历史、临床背景和作用的分子基础，包括青蒿素、三氧化二砷、小檗碱和丹参或丹参。通过这一点，我们强调了中药衍生药物如何为现代医学做出贡献的重要例子，并讨论了进一步研究的潜在途径。