Objective 　To assess the efficacy and safety of Chinese medicinal herbs for asymptomatic hepatitis B virus(HBV) infection.
Data Source 　The trials registers of the Cochrane Hepato-Biliary Group, the Cochrane Library and the Cochrane Complementary Medicine Field were searched in combination with MEDLINE, EMBASE, and handsearches of Chinese journals and conference proceedings.
Data Selection 　Randomized clinical trials with 3 months follow-up comparing Chinese medicinal herbs versus placebo, no intervention, non-specific treatment, or interferon treatment for asymptomatic HBV carriers were included. No language and blinding limitations were applied.
Data Extraction 　Data were extracted independently by two reviewers. The methodological quality of trials was assessed by the Jadad-scale plus allocation concealment.
Results 　Three randomized clinical trials (307 patients) with low methodological quality following patients for three months or more after the end of treatment were included. Herbal compound Jianpi Wenshen recipe showed significant effects on clearance of HBV markers compared to interferon: relative risk 2.40 (95 % CI 1.01 to 5.72) for clearance of serum HBsAg, and 2.54 (1.13 to 5.70) for seroconversion of HBeAg to anti-HBe. Phyllanthus amarus and Astragalus membranaceus showed no significant antiviral effect compared with placebo. Analysis of pooling eight randomized clinical trials with less than three months follow-up did not show a significant benefit of Chinese medicinal herbs on viral markers. No serious adverse event was observed.
Conclusions 　There is insufficient evidence for treatment of asymptomatic HBVcarriers using Chinese medicinal herbs due to the low quality of the trials. Further randomized, double blind, placebo-controlled trials are needed.

Citation： LIU Jianping,QIN Xiankui,Mclntosh Heather. A systematic review on Chinese medicinal herbs for asymptomatic carriers of hepatitis B virus. Chinese Journal of Evidence-Based Medicine, 2001, 01(3): 147-152. doi: Copy