Pan MZ 1997.

Methods	Generation of allocation sequence: unstated. Blinding: single blind, but not specified. Sample size estimation: no information. Withdrawal/drop‐out: unstated.
Participants	Ethnic: Chinese; 72 patients (M/F 28/44, mean age 58 years (39‐70), mean disease duration 7.8 years (1‐26 years). 36 in treatment group and 36 in control group). Setting: outpatients. Inclusion criteria: type 2 diabetes mellitus, diagnosed by WHO criteria (WHO 1980), with syndromes of Qi‐Yin deficiency, and kidney deficiency complicated with blood stasis diagnosed by TCM criteria. Exclusion criteria: unstated.
Interventions	Experimental intervention: Xianzhen Pian (mixture of more than 12 herbs) tablet, 10 tablets (1 g/tab) orally, t.i.d., for two months. Control intervention: placebo (starch), 3 tablets (0.75 g/tab), t.i.d., orally, for two months. All patients had a run‐in period of four weeks prior to the interventions, but maintained their original treatments (including diet control and oral hypoglycaemic drugs) during the trial.
Outcomes	Symptoms, FBG, PBG, and adverse effects. No follow‐up was reported.
Notes
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Allocation concealment?	Unclear risk	B ‐ Unclear