Ethnopharmacological relevance: The process of liver fibrogenesis includes a number of common and etiology-dependent or independent mechanisms and events. Up to now, there are still insufficient approved biological or chemical therapies directly targeting and reversing advanced fibrosis. The key is that once liver fibrosis is triggered, it presents a complex network control model with the activation of HSCs as the core, resulting in poor efficacy of treatment. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has unique advantages in treating hepatic fibrosis because of its syndrome differentiation and treatment and comprehensive pharmacological effects of multi-channel, multi-level and multi-target. However, TCM's advantages were rarely discussed as previous reviews focused on the active ingredients of TCM and single Chinese Medicine. Therefore, this paper focuses on TCM herbal formulae's pharmacological role, target and related mechanisms in the treatment of liver fibrosis.

Aim of the study: This paper will focus on the pharmacological role, target and related mechanisms of TCM herbal formulae in the treatment of liver fibrosis.

Materials and methods: We collect English literatures or Chinese literatures with English Abstract on the treatment of liver fibrosis with TCM herbal formulae from databases including PubMed, Wiley InterScience, Science Direct OnSite/Elsevier, Ovid, Excerpta Medica Database, SpringLink, CNKI and China Biomedical Literature Database. Based on previous literatures, we summarize the TCM herbal formulae with definite anti-hepatic fibrosis effects.

Results: To some extent, classical or modern TCM herbal formulae including Yinchenhao Decoction (YCHD), Xiayuxue Decoction (XYXD), Xiaochaihutang (XCHT), Yiguanjian Decoction (YGJ), Huangqi Decoction (HQD), Dahuang Zhechong Pills (DHZC), Fuzheng Huayu Formula (FZHY), Fufang Biejia Ruangan Tablets (FFBJRG), Anluo Huaxian Pills (ALHX) and Compound 861 (Cpd861) have anti-hepatic fibrosis effect both on patients with liver fibrosis and animal models with liver fibrosis.

Conclusion: According to the principle of syndrome differentiation and treatment, Liver fibrosis patients with different syndromes are treated with different herbal formula, which increases the difficulty of clinical efficacy research. YCHD and XYXD research lack randomized and controlled clinical trials. XCHT, YGJ and HQD research has small sample sizes despite randomized and controlled clinical trials. In contrast, most modern herbal formulae have randomized and controlled clinical trials. For instance, FZHY and ALHX recently published the research results of the combination of entecavir in the treatment of patients with chronic hepatitis B liver fibrosis or cirrhosis. Compared to anti-viral treatment with entecavir alone, this method has improved the reversion rate of liver fibrosis but still needs syndrome classification therapy of TCM. TCM Herbal formulae have a good prospect in treating liver fibrosis, but its composition of multiple drugs and a wide range of targets intensify the difficulty of studying their anti-hepatic fibrosis mechanisms. Future research needs to further study the anti-hepatic fibrosis mechanisms and select corresponding TCM herbal formula to treat patients with different syndromes of liver fibrosis or the same patient with different syndromes at different stages to achieve better curative results.