The law of compatibility is the key to complex prescription in traditional Chinese medicine(TCM). Researches on compatibility always focus on the relationships among the compatibilities

the chemical compositions and the pharmacological effects. TCM principle is guidance for the law of compatibility

and the research on theory is dominant. Among the researches on compatibility of complex prescription

studies on pharmacological effects

medicine chemistry and pharmacokinetic also have increased

and the studies related to orthogonal design

homogeneous design

correlation analysis and clustering analysis have become more and more gradually. Nowadays

the research concentrates on compatibility of different TCM

increased and decreased regulation in pharmacological effects after compatibility with different doses to discover the best relationship between medicine compatibility and dose compatibility. In some scope

the dose variations may not change the pharmacological effects;but in most cases

compatibility of different doses may change the physical or chemical characters of medicines

so the pharmacological effects and the characters in complex prescription might change

even produce new chemical components. Researchers explain the cognition and thoughts about complex prescription in the different aspects of views

such as TCM principles

pharmacological effects

chemical components

medicine chemistry

pharmacokinetic and the compatibility of effective components

and point out the compatibility of effective components study have become the characteristic study field recently. Researchers study the principle

method

and the law of compatibility on complex prescription in TCM and have made great progress in the basis of disparting prescription

finger-print method

and many other modern analytical instrument applications. In recent years

the research process have got lots of achievements in different aspects

from small pieces ready for decoction to chemical components

from vitro to vivo

from single method to multidisciplinary analysis. With the developments of modernization of TCM

new exploration about the complex prescription is attempted

and will be the foundation for TCM reaching to the world.