To systematically investigate the shelf life or validity period of Chinese medicine,explore the basis and necessity of setting the shelf life or validity period of Chinese medicine decoction pieces,thereby providing technical support for improving the quality of Chinese medicine and ensuring the safety of the clinical medication and the scientific basis for the formulation of relevant laws and regulations by the drug regulatory department.Methods:Taking China National Knowledge Infrastructure(CNKI) as the data source and adopting the bibliometric research method,the retrieval words were selected as “Chinese medicine” and “validity period”,“decoction pieces” and “validity period”,“decoction pieces” and “shelf life”,“Chinese medicine” and “shelf life”,“Chinese medicine” and “expiry date”,and “decoction pieces” and “expiry date”,and CNKI platform tools and Excel were used for statistical analysis.Results:Through database retrieval,85 valid papers related to the shelf life,validity period,or expiry date of Chinese medicine and decoction pieces were obtained,including 26 papers related to the shelf life of Chinese medicine and decoction pieces and 59 papers related to the validity period or expiry date of Chinese medicine and decoction pieces.Of the 59 papers on the validity period of Chinese medicine,74.58% discussed whether and how to formulate the validity period of Chinese medicine,and 25.42% were experimental articles on the study of the validity period of Chinese medicine.Conclusion:This paper summarizes the current situation of the shelf life and validity period of Chinese medicine and decoction pieces,quality evaluation indicators,research methods,classification of decoction pieces,necessity of formulating the shelf life,as well as the existing problems and suggestions,which provides a detailed literature basis for the research and formulation of the shelf life of Chinese medicine decoction pieces.