ABSTRACT
As a typical representative of heat-clearing and detoxifying prescriptions， Huanglian Jiedutang （HJT） has various pharmacological activities and is widely used in clinical practice. The articles concerning the effect and clinical application of HJT published in recent years were retrieved from such databases as China National Knowledge Infrastructure （CNKI） and PubMed to figure out HJT efficacy， especially in anti-inflammation， the corresponding action pathways， and its clinical application. It was found that the anti-inflammatory effect mainly resulted from HJT regulation of multiple pathways including interleukin-17 （IL-17） signaling pathway， tumor necrosis factor （TNF） signaling pathway， Toll-like receptor 4 （TLR4） signaling pathway， and neutrophil chemotaxis. The inflammatory cytokines in the serum were reduced via these pathways and thus the inflammation was inhibited. Because of its unique anti-inflammatory advantage， HJT has been widely used for the treatment of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases， digestive system diseases， skin inflammation， sepsis， and other infectious diseases. In view of this， the paper reviewed the anti-inflammatory effect and clinical application of HJT， aiming to provide a reference for further research.