RETRACTED: A data-mining based analysis of traditional Chinese medicine in diagnosing and treating COVID-19 (Retracted Article)

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) plays a vital role in preventing and treating COVID-19. In order to improve the therapeutic effect, we carried out this study to cope with the pandemic and discover the methods of treating COVID-19 with TCM. Our study collected abundant medical records with similar manifestations of COVID-19 in Chinese ancient times. The key words including wen (sic), yi (sic), li (sic), and zhang (sic) were searched in ZhongyiZhiku (https://www.zk120.com/) from Warring States Period (457-221 BC) to the Republic of China era (1912 - 1949), so as to locate pandemic medical records according to inclusion criteria and exclusion criteria. Later, COVID-19 related manifestations and corresponding medications in those records were categorized by EXCEL. Last, Traditional Chinese Medicine Inheritance Support System (TCMISS) version 2.5 was used to build a medical record database of TCM treating COVID-19. Our study collected 263 pandemic medical records comprising COVID-19 related manifestations and found out that Chinese Materia Medica (CMM) combinations excavated from the medical records included Ren Shen Bai Du San, Wu Ling San, Xiao Chai Hu Tang, Da Cheng Qi Tang, Da Chai Hu Tang, Ling Gui Zhu Gan Tang, and Qing Wen Bai Du Yin. The recurrent CMMs with a high frequency for treating COVID-19 manifestations were Scutellariae Radix (Huang Qin), Paeoniae Alba Radix (Bai Shao), Poria (Fu Ling), and Bupleuri Radix (Chai Hu). Our study suggests that TCM could offer valuable therapeutic strategies for COVID-19.