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Piao Zheng [1] and Yun Wang [1] and Hongmei Lu [2] and Xinyi Zhou [2] and Tao Tang [1] and Rong Fan [1] and Chunhu Zhang [1] and Hanjin Cui [1] and Yang Wang [1] and Jiekun Luo [1]

Academic Editor: G. K. Jayaprakasha

1, Department of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China, csu.edu.cn

2, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410008, China, csu.edu.cn

Received Jan 10, 2017; Revised Jul 8, 2017; Accepted Jul 25, 2017

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

1. Introduction

Infertility is a global health issue affecting 15% of all couples worldwide [1, 2]. Male infertility directly or indirectly contributes to about 60% of infertile couples [3]. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has a long history in the diagnosis and treatment of andropathies including male infertility [4]. The primary cause of male infertility is poor sperm quality. TCM can enhance the sperm motility, attenuate genital inflammatory conditions, and regulate the sexual dysfunction [5]. Particularly, oligospermia treatment with TCM has a better improvement compared with the modern medicine [6].

As far as we know, the correct diagnosis of Chinese medicine syndrome (CMS) mainly contributes to the satisfied effects in the TCM treatment of male infertility. CMS is the basic description of the disease in TCM. According to TCM theory, the imbalance of kidney essence and Qi results in the male infertility [4]. Thus, the tonification of the kidney and promotion of the Qi-blood circulation are used frequently and efficiently to treat male infertility [7]. With regard to the treatment of male infertility, the Kidney-Yang deficiency syndrome (KYDS) is the critical CMS of male infertility [8]. Thus, Jingui Shenqi pills and Yougui pills are the primary formulae to treat male infertility with KYDS [9, 10].

With the development of TCM modernization, the modern connotation of CMS becomes a hot research field [11]. This is because TCM syndrome differentiation always mainly depends on doctors’ experience rather than objective index. TCM scientists tend to elucidate the scientific basis of CMS. Fortunately, metabolomics provides a useful tool to explore the essence...

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