Macrophage polarization contributes to inflammatory regulation, tumor immunity, tissue repair, and fibrosis. However, the knowledge structure, research evolution, and emerging pharmacological directions concerning the regulation of macrophage polarization by traditional Chinese medicine (TCM)-derived bioactive constituents have not been systematically characterized at the field level. English-language articles and reviews published between 1 January 2000 and 31 March 2026 were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection. After screening, 478 records were analyzed using VOSviewer 1.6.20 and CiteSpace 6.3.R1 to characterize publication trends, contributors, collaboration networks, co-citation relationships, keyword clusters, and citation bursts. Publication output increased markedly after 2019 and accelerated from 2022. China contributed the largest number of publications, with TCM-focused universities and institutes forming the principal institutional network. Major research themes included M1/M2 polarization, inflammatory signaling, tumor-associated macrophages, inflammatory bowel disease, gut microbiota, fibrosis, wound healing, and network pharmacology. Flavonoids, polyphenols, saponins, polysaccharides, and alkaloids were the main constituent classes identified. Recent research increasingly links macrophage regulation with immunometabolism, disease-specific microenvironments, microbiota-metabolite interactions, and direct target validation. The findings map the development and pharmacological directions of this research field and highlight the need for chemical profiling, multi-omics, single-cell technologies, and experimental target validation to clarify the material basis, molecular mechanisms, and disease-context-dependent effects of representative constituents.
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Guo et al. (2026) studied this question.
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