Background and Aims Korea has known high antibiotics prescription in children upper respiratory tract infections (URIs). Recently, herbal therapy is be magnified instead of unnecessary antibiotics prescription. Forsythia Koreana has been extensively used for the treatment of viral and bacterial respiratory tract infections. However, it remains unclear whether the herbal medicine has beneficial effects through clinical control study in URIs. Therefore, to investigate the anti-viral effects of Forsythia Koreana included herbal medicine (FKGM) on URIs in children, we conducted a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study.

Methods Participants included 29 children who received either placebo (n=15) or FKGM (n=14) at the onset of URIs symptoms. The therapeutic effects assessed URI symptoms scoring system given by the James A Taylor for clinical studies to identify children with a documented viral URIs. Results were evaluated using student’s t-test; the Kaplan-Meier method was used to analyse data regarding symptom duration.

Conclusions FKGM was more effective than the placebo in terms of reducing the duration of URI symptoms and reducing nasal discharge. These findings suggest that FKGM can be used for the replacement of antibiotics.