Shanghai City News Service

 2025年5月27日 網(wǎng)頁

記者：Cai Wenjun

原文鏈接

https://www.citynewsservice.cn/service/Local-innovation-gives-TCM-new-life-and-modern-charm-dmjod6ke/?source=share/?source=share/?source=share

In most people's eyes, the typical therapies of traditional Chinese medicine are mainly bitter herbal soup, acupuncture, cupping and tuina. Yes, they are useful, but nothing new. Now, however, there is something novel!

To promote TCM among the public, medical staff and hospitals in Shanghai are pushing the improvement and innovation in TCM, which no longer involves "boring and routine" therapies but instead offers modern, convenient, practical and even fashionable products and services.

For example, they can be your hair shampoo, facial mask, children's biscuits, tea, candy, sachet and innovative therapy.

TCM can treat, prevent disease and do healthcare

"Regarding the long history of TCM, it is not only a disease treatment method but also a way to prevent disease and provide healthcare. With the improvement in health awareness and the demand for TCM promotion and internationalization, we decided not to limit TCM only to clinical use but making it a whole-health therapy for wider recognition and adoption," said Dr Song Yu, director of the dermatology department of Longhua Hospital, a leading TCM hospital in Shanghai.

"TCM is not only a medical therapy but can be items of daily use to improve people's life quality.

"We are exploring the combination of TCM theory and practice, as the spectrum of disease has changed from inflammatory and infectious diseases to various needs such as hair care, skin care and anesthetic demand."

"We focused our TCM innovation on people's demand like hair and scalp problems," Song noted. "TCM has had internal and external therapy on hair and scalp for a long time, such as fumigation therapy, which means pouring and washing hair and scalp with herbal soup after being cooled down.

"But it is not easy to use and can dye people's clothes. So we first made it into granules, yet it was still not convenient as people had to dissolve the granules and then wash their hair."

Shampoo, masks and biscuits

"Then we thought about shampoo through cooperation with a cosmetic company. We make our prescription into shampoo products for convenient use," Song explained further.

"We developed three shampoos targeting white hair, itchy scalp and scurf, and excessive sebum. All ingredients are purely TCM. Two products have received the license for cosmetics, and the other has also passed the examination and will receive the license soon."

"Another is facial mask," he informed. "We have developed special prescription targeting color spots, acne and allergy through fine herbal powders. In our department, we have combined hot fumigation, massage and mask to achieve a better and individualized effects.

"Our anti-skin allergy prescription has been bought by a leading local cosmetic brand, which is making it an innovative cosmetic product."

Another highlight of TCM innovation is that doctors are completely upgrading the form and taste of TCM.

At Longhua Hospital, doctors are making their prescription for children with skin allergy into biscuits.

"Many children with skin allergy should take TCM regularly, But the bitter taste of herbal soup prevents their compliance. So we are looking for other methods more acceptable to children. We have turned the herbal soup into biscuits. A small pack of biscuits is equivalent to a single-day dosage," Song said.

"To make it tasty, we have tried various combination to get the final product. It has passed the ethical evaluation of our hospital, so we will carry out clinical trials soon. In the future, children or those who don't like herbal soup can take such biscuits to control their skin allergy conveniently."