Objective: Discuss on the characteristics of the Chinese patent medicines containing incompatible herbs

to provide information and reference for safe clinical medicine application. Method: Classify and summarize the products of medicine pieces and Chinese patent medicines about eighteen incompatible herbs and nineteen mutual antagonistic herbs recorded in the Pharmacopoeia of the People's Republic of China (volume I

2015)

in which the situation is compared with that Pharmacopoeia of the People's Republic of China (volume I

2010). Result: In the 2015 version

39 products of medicine pieces about eighteen incompatible herbs and 18 products of nineteen mutual antagonistic herbs are recorded; with 440 products more than that in the 2010 version

a total of 1 502 products of Chinese patent medicines are recorded

in which 8 products contain eighteen incompatible herbs

9 products contain nineteen mutual antagonistic herbs

and 1 product contains both eighteen incompatible herbs and nineteen mutual antagonistic herbs; incompatible herb pairs of Caryophylli Flos and Curcumae Radix

Aconiti Radix/Aconiti Kusnezoffii Radix and Bletillae Rhizoma/Ampelopsis Radix

as well as Cinnamomi Cortex and Halloysitum Rubrum are applied with high frequency; the proportion of Chinese patent medicines for external use is over 30%. Conclusion: Compared with the 2010 version

the Chinese patent medicines with incompatible herbs in the 2015 version have increasement in varieties

application frequency and external use proportion

indicating that it is worthy of further research on the eighteen incompatible herbs and nineteen mutual antagonistic herbs.