Abstract:Objective To analyze the current research status of the classical formulas in China and predict the future development trends， thus providing reference and suggestions for the scientific research and clinical application of classical formulas.Method The relevant publications were retrieved from China National Knowledge Infrastructure （CNKI） with the time interval from January 1， 2008 to August 1， 2023， and the publications were counted. CiteSpace 6.1.R6 was used for visual analysis of the authors， research institutions， and keywords.Result A total of 847 valid publications were included in this study. The annual number of publications showed a rapid rise after 2018. The Chinese Journal of Experimental Traditional Medical Formulae was the main journal publishing the articles about ancient classical formulas in China. ZHAN Zhilai， BAI Jie， LU Tulin， FU Chaomei， and CHEN Renshou were active researchers in this field and had formed stable research teams. The China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences and its affiliated institutions published the most articles and had close cooperation with other research institutions in China. The co-occurrence network and cluster map of keywords showed that textual research on materia medica， clinical application， quality standard， fingerprint， and mechanism of action were the core keywords. The top 3 bursts in this field were benchmark samples， quality evaluation， and origin.Conclusion The current research on ancient classical formulas still has shortcomings such as lack of large-scale cooperation between teams and weak transformation of research achievements. At present， the research hotspots in this field mainly include textural research on key information， quality control and fingerprinting， and clinical application. The future research in this field mainly focus on benchmark samples of classical formula preparations， quality evaluation of medicinal materials， pharmacodynamic material basis， and mechanisms of classical formulas.
