Many-to-one mapping: The principle of Chinese medicinal property theory learned from strong association rules

Knowledge discovery in databases is believed to be a promising technique in the modernization of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), especially for understanding the mysterious TCM theory. Based on the classic literature resources, this paper mined the association rules between the Chinese medicinal property (nature or flavor) and the practical efficacy by the Apriori algorithm. The results showed strong associations between a series of efficacy attributes and the specific medicinal property manifestly, which we defined as a kind of many-to-one mapping. It showed that the same property of different medicinal herbs might be inferred from distinct origins and reflected in different ways. It was believed as the inherent principle of the Chinese Medicinal Property Theory, which would help to understand the essence of the TCM medical system.