The intestine is an important place for oral drug metabolism in the body

a large number of bacteria in the gut has played an inevitable role in drug biological conversion. Thus

the intestinal flora biotransformation of the active ingredients of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has become the focus of attention in recent years. In order to further explore the regularization of biotransformation

the relevant literatures of biotransformation on TCM including a single active ingredient and compound ingredients were collected. Related literature searches were performed in CNKI

CMCC

VIP

CBM WanFang and PubMed Data in the past 20 years. The results implied that the glycosides could be hydrolyzed to aglycone;alkaloids could be hydrolysised and dehydrated easily;diester could be converted to the corresponding mono-type alkaloids and lipids

which reduced the toxicity;lactones structure may cause breakage or demethylation reactions. In vivo biotransformations were occurred in many types of active ingredients of TCM via intestinal flora

which caused changes in the structure or the formation of new active ingredients. Intestinal flora also played an important role in the metabolism of TCM

such as for the confirmation of the rationality and efficiency of herbal compatibility.