SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Endocrinol.
Sec. Clinical Diabetes
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fendo.2025.1604633
This article is part of the Research TopicNatural Medicines for Metabolic Diseases – Computational and Pharmacological Approaches, Volume IIView all 5 articles
Efficacy and Safety of Qingre Lishi Decoction for Type 2 Diabetes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Provisionally accepted
- 1Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine, Harbin, China
- 2First Affiliated Hospital of Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine, Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, China
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Objective: This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of Qingre Lishi decoction (QRLSD) for type 2 diabetes (T2D), thereby providing new evidence-based insights into the role of traditional Chinese medicine in treating T2D. Methods: WanFang, Embase, Web of Science, PubMed, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, and the Cochrane Library were searched up to January 2025. Studies assessing the efficacy and safety of QRLSD in treating T2D were included. Data were pooled using standardized mean difference (SMD) and risk ratio (RR). Sensitivity and subgroup analyses were performed to assess the stability of the results and investigate potential sources of heterogeneity. Statistical analyses were conducted using RevMan 5.4 and Stata 18.0. Results: A total of 18 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were included. Our results showed that QRLSD reduced the levels of fasting blood glucose (SMD: -15.09; 95% CI: [-18.27, -11.90], I² = 99%, P < 0.00001), 2-hour postprandial blood glucose (SMD: -17.71; 95% CI: [-21.70, -13.71], I² = 98%, P < 0.00001), glycated hemoglobin (SMD: -18.93; 95% CI: [-22.77, -15.09], I² = 98%, P < 0.00001), as well as other metabolic parameters, indicators of insulin resistance, and body mass index. No significant difference in the incidence of adverse events between the intervention and control groups was found (RR: 1.8; 95% CI: [0.57, 5.68], I² = 9%, P = 0.32). Conclusion: For T2D, QRLSD can significantly improve clinical outcomes and may serve as a more effective therapy than single Western medicine therapy. Moreover, it was not related to significant adverse events. Given the inherent limitations of this study, large-scale, multicenter international RCTs are needed to further validate these findings in the future.
Keywords: efficacy, Qingre Lishi decoction, type 2 diabetes, Systematic review, Meta-analysis
Received: 02 Apr 2025; Accepted: 02 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Lin, Sun, Li and Du. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Likun Du, dulikun@hljucm.net
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