Huang CL 2003.

Methods	Generation of allocation sequence: random number table. Blinding: not used. Sample size estimation: no information. Withdrawal/drop‐out: unstated.
Participants	Ethnic: Chinese; 128 patients (68 in treatment group, M/F 35/33, mean age 59 years (38‐70), mean disease duration 5.6 years (0.5‐15 years). 60 in control group, M/F 31/29, mean age 59 years (36‐71), mean disease duration 5 years (0.6‐14 years)). Setting: inpatients and outpatients. Inclusion criteria: type 2 diabetes mellitus diagnosed by WHO criteria (1999), without heart, liver or kidney disease. Exclusion criteria: unstated.
Interventions	Experimental intervention: Astragalus injection (herb extract), 20 ml in 250 ml of 0.9% saline, intravenously, daily for 30 days; then changed to Astragalus decoction, 40 g daily, for three months. During the treatment, patients took gliclazide and metformin. Control intervention: Gliclazide, 80 mg orally, b.i.d., plus metformin 0.5 g, t.i.d., orally; for four months. All patients were on dietary control during treatment.
Outcomes	Symptoms, FBG, PBG, FINS, INS, HbA1c, blood lipid, haemorrheology, blood pressure, and ISI. Outcomes were measured at end of treatment.
Notes
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Allocation concealment?	Unclear risk	B ‐ Unclear