Research hotspots and trends in Chinese minority traditional medicine during 2021:a visual bibliometrics analysis

Background:Chinese minority traditional medicine(CMTM)is an important component of Chinese traditional culture and medicine that has contributed to the health and prosperity of Chinese people of all ethnic groups.Although this type of medicine has attracted interest,its developmental trends and research status remain unclear.Therefore,we used literature metrology to evaluate the publications on CMTM during 2021 and explore hotspots and frontier areas.Methods:Reports associated with CMTM published between January 1,2021,and December 31,2021,were downloaded from the Web of Science database.The authors,institutions,countries,journals,keywords,and other standard bibliometric indicators were analyzed and visualized using CiteSpace,and research hotspots and trends were identified.Results:We retrieved 152 CMTM-related publications,among which Tibetan medicine attracted the most interest.Journals covering alternative and complementary medicine topics were the most prevalent sources of reports about CMTM,particularly the Journal of Ethnopharmacology.Most research in this field was conducted in China and frequently published by traditional Chinese medicine colleges and universities.One author,Yi Zhang,has extensively investigated Tibetan and Korean medicine.The keyword co-occurrence network revealed that investigations into ethnic groups mainly focused on the pharmacological activities and phytochemical components of ethnic medicines.The keywords of gut microbiota and autophagy in some publications reflect the direction of future CMTM investigations.Conclusion:Our findings showed the current status and trends in CMTM investigations.This information will help identify new research directions and hotspots in this field.