The Journal of pharmacy and pharmacologyJul 6, 2026

Traditional Chinese Medicine Treatments for Chronic Heart Failure: From Key Ingredients to Herbal Remedies

Longevity & Aging Weekly Brief ↗PubMed ↗DOI ↗

Updated Jul 7, 2026

Abstract

Chronic heart failure (CHF) is associated with multiple pathological mechanisms including inflammation, oxidative stress, and mitochondrial dysfunction.

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) may offer advantages in addressing these complex mechanisms due to its multi-component and holistic properties.
Research highlights the potential of active ingredients from Chinese medicinal herbs in targeting inflammation, oxidative stress, and metabolic disorders.
A framework connecting active ingredients to their regulatory pathways and related CHF mechanisms is proposed.
The analysis considers different heart failure subtypes, including HFrEF, HFmrEF, and HFpEF, to explore TCM's differential effects.
Challenges in the current research include issues related to evidence hierarchy, druggability, quality control, and clinical translation.

Simplified

Chronic heart failure (CHF) remains a global health challenge with complex pathological mechanisms, including inflammation, oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, myocardial remodeling, ferroptosis, and autophagy. Despite some progress in modern medicine for the treatment of CHF, challenges remain, including insufficient therapeutic efficacy and significant side effects. In this context, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), characterized by its multi-component, multi-target, and holistic regulatory properties, demonstrates potential advantages in the prevention and treatment of CHF. This paper summarizes the research progress of active ingredients from Chinese medicinal herbs, single herbs, and traditional Chinese herbal formulations in addressing key pathological mechanisms related to CHF. These mechanisms include inflammation and oxidative stress, mitochondrial quality and energy metabolism disorders, myocardial remodeling, ferroptosis, and autophagy abnormalities. A multi-target framework is constructed by linking active ingredients from Chinese medicinal herbs, the signaling pathways they regulate, and the corresponding pathological mechanisms involved in CHF. Further integrating the classification background of HFrEF, HFmrEF, and HFpEF, this paper analyzes the potential differential focal roles of TCM-related mechanisms across different heart failure subtypes and pathological processes, and discusses existing problems in current research in the aspects of evidence hierarchy, druggability of active components, quality control, and clinical translation, as well as other related fields. This paper aims to provide a reference for subsequent research on TCM-based prevention and treatment of CHF.

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Traditional Chinese Medicine Treatments for Chronic Heart Failure: From Key Ingredients to Herbal Remedies

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