对中药方剂的作用机制研究，是中药科学发展的必然要求，是促进中药国际化应用的重要基础，应用现代科学理论和技术方法探索中药的作用机制，成为中药研究的重要内容。“多成分多靶点”的作用模式是近年来对中药作用机制的一种认识，对中药的研究发挥了一定的指导作用。本文根据近年来中药作用机制研究的进展和国内外对药物作用机制的研究趋势，认为中药作用机制实际上是两个复杂系统的相互作用，即药物有效成分组成的复杂物质体系和病理条件下药物作用靶点组成的复杂生物体系。正是由于这两个复杂体系的相互作用才达到了药物治疗疾病的目的。因此，本文通过大量资料分析认为，多成分多靶点解释中药的作用机制并不能反映中药的作用特点和机制，尤其不能反映药物多成分的有机组合和病理情况下的多靶点相互关联性的变化。中药的作用是由多种有效成分有机组合的物质组合与多种疾病相关靶点综合影响而相互作用产生的，这两个复杂体系的相互作用，可以用中药有效成分组来描述。

The study of the action mechanism of Chinese materia medica (CMM) prescriptions is a critical step in the development of CMM, and lays a foundation of the internationalization of CMM. Using modern scientific theories and techniques in combination, the multi-target and multi-component pattern has been explored and accepted as the very mechanism of CMM, and is used to guide CMM research. In this study, according to the recent progress in CMM mechanism study and the pharmaceutical development tendency both at home and abroad, the underlying CMM mechanism was considered to be the interaction of two complicated biosystems, that is, the complex material system composed of active drug ingredients and the complex biological system composed of drug targets under pathological conditions, which function interactively in disease treatment. The statistical analysis showed that the multi-target and multi-component pattern cannot give a good explanation to the action features and mechanism of CMM, especially the organic combination of multiple drug ingredients and association variation of multiple drug targets. Actually CMM functions via the interaction of the above-mentioned two systems, which may be described with active ingredient groups of CMM.

国家自然基金项目（30630073）：中药复方（小续命汤）有效成分组代谢特点及分子机制研究，负责人：杜冠华；科技部项目（2007FY130100）：道地中药材及主要成分标准物质研制及分析方法研究，负责人：吕杨。