According to World Health Organization, the definition of traditional medicine (TM) is “the sum total of the knowledge, skills, and practices based on the theories, beliefs, and experiences indigenous to different cultures, whether explicable or not, used in the maintenance of health, as well as in the prevention, diagnosis, improvement, or treatment of physical and mental illnesses.” Diverse TMs such as traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), traditional Indian medicine, and traditional African medicine have been evolved. Though the efficacy of TM might have been confirmed by many years of clinical use, the targets of TMs remain obscure.

Proteomics has been widely used in the mechanistic study of TM, while proteomics can be considered to be still in its developmental stage. We are meeting major challenges such as finding the most suitable way of using new proteomics technologies in TM studies, integrating the data from proteomics study with data from other -omics technologies, etc. Researchers in this area need a platform to integrate the most recent developments and ideas in this field.

In this special issue, we invite investigators to contribute original research articles as well as reviews in understanding the mechanisms of TM through the use of proteomics alone or integrated with other systems biology technologies.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Advances in proteomics technologies and the application of these technologies in study of TM (purified TM components or traditionally used forms of TM)
• Novel methods developed by the integration of proteomic analysis and other -omics analysis in TM studies
• Advances in the understanding of the traditional use of TM by applying proteomics