Annual advances of Chinese minority traditional medicine in 2019

Traditional medicine systems practiced by various ethnic minorities represent an important part of traditional Chinese medicine. The past 12 months have witnessed extensive research pertaining to different Chinese minority traditional medicine (CMTM). The annual CMTM review evaluates research published during 2019 in different CMTM including Tibetan medicine, Uyghur medicine, Mongolian medicine, Korean medicine and Zhuang medicine. Research in the field of Tibetan medicine focused on pharmacology, pharmacy, plant sciences, medicinal chemistry and integrated complementary medicine and the top three countries were China, USA and India. Research in Uyghur medicine mainly pertained to chemistry, pharmacology, pharmacy, and food science technology and the publications were mainly from China. Research in Mongolian medicine mainly pertained to pharmacology, pharmacy, analytical chemistry, biochemistry, molecular biology and experimental research; the publications were mainly from China and Mongolia. In short, research related to traditional medicine of various ethnic minorities was mainly conducted in China and the neighboring countries. The research focus for each minority medicine is essentially on the effects and mechanisms of action of the active ingredients of the ethnodrugs and the special prescriptions or therapies. The generated evidence will facilitate further developments in this field.