TCM Fingerprint database: A digital approach to scientifically reflect the internal quality of traditional Chinese medicine

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been used to prevent, treat and diagnose diseases for 5,000 years under the guidance of TCM theories. TCM fingerprinting technology, as the model of the quality control of TCM, promotes the application of TCM all over the world. But how to realize the fast matching, retrieval, recognition, and identification function of TCM fingerprint data is an urgent problem in the study of TCM fingerprint. The establishment of TCM fingerprint database provides a powerful platform for the popularization and application of TCM fingerprint. The aim of this paper is therefore to summarize the research process of TCM fingerprint database. Relevant studies from the literature have been collected from scientific databases, such as "PubMed", "CNKI", "Google Scholar", "Baidu Xueshu", "Web of Science", "SpringerLink", "Wiley Online Library", "SciFinder" and "Chemical book" using the keywords "fingerprint", "traditional Chinese medicines", "database", "TCM fingerprint", and "TCM fingerprint database". This paper mainly expounds the research process of TCM fingerprint database, its advantages in TCM modernization research and research achievements. At the same time, the problems of TCM fingerprint database in modern TCM research are summarized and the bright development prospect is forecasted. TCM fingerprint database is helpful to strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights of TCM, boost the data mining of TCM fingerprint, and accelerate the modernization of TCM.