Objective:

2

Traditional medicine (TM) has played a key role in the health care system of East Asian countries

including China

Japan and South Korea. This bibliometric study analyzes the recent research status of these three TMs

including traditional Chinese medicine (TCM)

traditional Korean medicine (TKM)

and Kampo medicine (KM).

Methods:

2

Research topics of studies published for recent 10 years (2014 to 2023)

through a search on MEDLINE via PubMed

was analyzed. Medical Subject Headings were used to distinguish between the three TMs researches. Bibliographic information was analyzed through VOSViewer version. Total 10

151 documents were included: TCM studies (n=9

630); TKM studies (

n

=256); and KM studies (

n

=295).

Results:

2

Comparing the three co-occurrence analysis maps

TCM studies generally overwhelm the quantitative scale of TKM and KM studies.

In the trend of the latest research of TCM

not only corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19)

but also clinical research topics such as gastrointestinal microbiome and diabetes mellitus have emerged

with

in silico

research approaches being actively applied. In the case of TKM

obesity and cooperative treatment with Western medicine are gaining attention. In KM

COVID-19 and

Scutellaria baicalensis

were recent research focuses. Unique features that distinguished from the other two TM research trends included 'gut microbiota'

'diabetes mellitus'

'clinical trials'

'disease models'

and 'quality control' in the TCM map; 'prospective studies'

'cell line

tumor'

and 'panax' in the TKM map; and 'aged

80 and over'

'retrospective studies'

'glycyrrhiza'

'panax'

and 'paeonia' in the KM map. Also

some quantitative and qualitative differences were found in author co-operation maps in each TM.

Conclusions:

2

This analysis revealed that there were clear quantitative and qualitative differences among TCM

TKM

and KM. Although these medicines have a common root

they may have become distinct due to factors such as the size of research funds

cultural differences

and the medical licensing system.