[The effect of Platycodon grandiflorum and its historical change in the clinical application of Platycodonis radix]

Platycodon grandiflorum is currently mainly used in the treatment of lung issues such as ventilating the lung, resolving phlegm, benefiting pharynx and discharging pus in modern clinical practice. However, in Shennong Materia Medica Classic, the main applications of Platycodon grandiflora were for chest and hypocholic pain, abdominal fullness, intestinal ringing and anxiety palpitations. The considered efficacy of platycodon grandiflorum had changed dramatically since the Han Dynasty. Combing the records of platycodon grandiflorum in the literature of traditional Chinese herbs and comparing it with the clinical application of platycodon grandiflorum in the past dynasties, this paper found that the clinical application is the main factor affecting the effect change of platycodon grandiflorum and that the description of the efficacy of platycodon grandiflorum in the literature of Herbology is different from the actual application because of the complex interaction between the efficacy of prescription and drug efficacy. Therefore, there is a necessity to carry out a comparative study between one single traditional Chinese medicine and efficacy of medicine compatibility, so as to provide a theoretical basis for precise clinical application.