Intensive research on the prospective use of complementary and alternative medicine to treat systemic lupus erythematosus.

Traditional Chinese medicine has gained increasing acceptance worldwide as a form of complementary and alternative medicine and has been used to treat systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) inside and outside of China. Herbal medicines are generally low in cost, plentiful, and cause very little toxicity or few adverse reactions in clinical practice. However, the mechanisms by which traditional Chinese medicine treats SLE remain unclear. The immunosuppressive properties of traditional Chinese medicines and/or immunomodulation by those medicines could play an important role in their treatment of SLE.