Mutual information mining for component law and development of new recipes for rheumatoid arthritis

To analyze the component law of Chinese medicines for rheumatoid arthritis, and develop new prescriptions for rheumatoid arthritis through mutual Information mining methods. Chinese medicine recipes for rheumatoid arthritis were collected and recorded in the database, and then the correlation coefficient between herbs, core combinations of herbs and new prescriptions were analyzed by using modified mutual information, complex system entropy cluster and unsupervised hierarchical clustering, respectively. Based on the analysis of 63 Chinese medicine recipes for rheumatoid arthritis, 30 drugs with high-frequency and the distribution of Four Qi and Five Flavors of Chinese medicines occurrence in these recipes,34 frequently-used herb pairs and 9 core combinations were founded, and 3 new recipes for rheumatoid arthritis were developed. Chinese medicines for rheumatoid arthritis were mainly consist of blood-activating and stasis-dispelling edicinal, wind-dampnessdispelling and heatclearing medicinal, heat-clearing and detoxicating medicinal, tonifying and replenishing medicinal. So, the therapeutic principle for rheumatoid arthritisis to reinforce the healthy qi and eliminate the pathogenic factors. Radix Gentianae Macrophyllae, Rhizoma Chuanxiong, Radix Glycyrrhizae,Radix Angelicae Pubescentis,Radix Paeoniae Alba,Radix Angelicae Sinensis,Radix Achyranthis Bidentatae,Ramulus Cinnamomi,Rhizoma Et Radix Notopterygii and Radix Astragali are the main herbal drugs used in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.