Yukun Zhang: State Key Laboratory of Component-based Chinese Medicine, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, 301617, China; Engineering Research Center of Modern Chinese Medicine Discovery and Preparation Technique, Ministry of Education, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, 301617, China.
Peng Lu: State Key Laboratory of Component-based Chinese Medicine, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, 301617, China; Engineering Research Center of Modern Chinese Medicine Discovery and Preparation Technique, Ministry of Education, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, 301617, China.
Huan Qin: State Key Laboratory of Component-based Chinese Medicine, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, 301617, China; Engineering Research Center of Modern Chinese Medicine Discovery and Preparation Technique, Ministry of Education, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, 301617, China.
Yuelin Zhang: State Key Laboratory of Component-based Chinese Medicine, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, 301617, China; Engineering Research Center of Modern Chinese Medicine Discovery and Preparation Technique, Ministry of Education, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, 301617, China.
Xinru Sun: State Key Laboratory of Component-based Chinese Medicine, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, 301617, China; Engineering Research Center of Modern Chinese Medicine Discovery and Preparation Technique, Ministry of Education, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, 301617, China.
Xunan Song: State Key Laboratory of Component-based Chinese Medicine, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, 301617, China; Engineering Research Center of Modern Chinese Medicine Discovery and Preparation Technique, Ministry of Education, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, 301617, China.
Jingjing Liu: State Key Laboratory of Component-based Chinese Medicine, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, 301617, China; Engineering Research Center of Modern Chinese Medicine Discovery and Preparation Technique, Ministry of Education, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, 301617, China.
Hui Peng: State Key Laboratory of Component-based Chinese Medicine, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, 301617, China; Engineering Research Center of Modern Chinese Medicine Discovery and Preparation Technique, Ministry of Education, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, 301617, China.
Yiting Liu: State Key Laboratory of Component-based Chinese Medicine, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, 301617, China; Engineering Research Center of Modern Chinese Medicine Discovery and Preparation Technique, Ministry of Education, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, 301617, China.
Ebuka Olisaemeka Nwafor: State Key Laboratory of Component-based Chinese Medicine, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, 301617, China; Engineering Research Center of Modern Chinese Medicine Discovery and Preparation Technique, Ministry of Education, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, 301617, China.
Jiawei Li: State Key Laboratory of Component-based Chinese Medicine, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, 301617, China; Engineering Research Center of Modern Chinese Medicine Discovery and Preparation Technique, Ministry of Education, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, 301617, China. Electronic address: lijiawei1981@163.com.
Zhidong Liu: State Key Laboratory of Component-based Chinese Medicine, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, 301617, China; Engineering Research Center of Modern Chinese Medicine Discovery and Preparation Technique, Ministry of Education, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, 301617, China. Electronic address: liuzhidong@tjutcm.edu.cn.
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a progressive pulmonary interstitial inflammatory disease of unknown etiology, and is also a sequela in severe patients with the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). Nintedanib and pirfenidone are the only two known drugs which are conditionally recommended for the treatment of IPF by the FDA. However, these drugs pose some adverse side effects such as nausea and diarrhoea during clinical applications. Therefore, it is of great value and significance to identify effective and safe therapeutic drugs to solve the clinical problems associated with intake of western medicine. As a unique medical treatment, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has gradually exerted its advantages in the treatment of IPF worldwide through a multi-level and multi-target approach. Further, to overcome the current clinical problems of oral and injectable intakes of TCM, pulmonary drug delivery system (PDDS) could be designed to reduce the systemic metabolism and adverse reactions of the drug and to improve the bioavailability of drugs. Through PubMed, Google Scholar, Web of Science, and CNKI, we retrieved articles published in related fields in recent years, and this paper has summarized twenty-seven Chinese compound prescriptions, ten single TCM, and ten active ingredients for effective prevention and treatment of IPF. We also introduce three kinds of inhaling PDDS, which supports further research of TCM combined with PDDS to treat IPF.