About the Authors

Huijuan Cao

Affiliation Centre for Evidence-Based Chinese Medicine, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China

Mei Han

Affiliation Centre for Evidence-Based Chinese Medicine, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China

Ernest H. Y. Ng

Affiliation Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

Xiaoke Wu

Affiliation Department of Gynecology, The first affiliated hospital, Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine, Heilongjiang Province, China

Andrew Flower

Affiliation School of Medicine, University of Southampton, United Kingdom

George Lewith

Affiliation School of Medicine, University of Southampton, United Kingdom

Jian-Ping Liu

Liujp@bucm.edu.cn

Affiliation Centre for Evidence-Based Chinese Medicine, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China

Competing Interests

Dr. Ernest HY Ng and Dr. Xiaoke Wu are Chinese herbal medicine practitioners. The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: JL HC MH. Performed the experiments: HC MH JL. Analyzed the data: HC MH. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: HC MH ENg XW AF GL. Wrote the paper: HC MH ENg XW AF GL JL.