Biomarkers for biological quality control of Samsoeum: a scoping review

Abstract

Samsoeum (SSE) is a traditional herbal prescription used to cure early signs of a cold such as headache, cough, runny nose, and fever. The safety and efficacy of SSE can be guaranteed with the use of its quality control biomarkers. Although chemical quality control is performed to ensure consistent efficacy of SSE, it has limitations in evaluating the efficacy of complex natural products. To find biological assays that could complement the biological quality control of SSE, we conducted a study of the literature. In this review, we collected and identified 17 articles that investigated the efficacy of SSE, including clinical, in vivo, and in vitro studies. As a result, most studies evaluated anti-inflammatory and anti-allergy efficacies. One clinical study has reported efficacy of SSE for chronic bronchitis. In basic studies, 7 in vivo studies and 4 in vitro studies were mainly related to chronic diseases, including inflammation, allergy, cancer, and obesity. Optimal in vitro and in vivo efficacy evaluation techniques that can assess consistent clinical effects should be chosen for future qualitative evaluation studies of herbal prescriptions (herbal medicines).