ABSTRACT
Euphorbia kansui (EK) is a toxic herbal drug, and often used after vinegar-processing to reduce its toxicity. In present study, a 1H-NMR based metabonomic approach was used to evaluate the detoxification effect of vinegar-processed EK. The water extracts of EK and VEK were administered orally to male SD rats at doses of 9 g x kg(-1) x d(-1) for 1 week, respectively, and one more week observation was further conducted. The control group was orally given with saline. Histopathological studies of liver samples on the 8th and 15th day were conducted, and the metabolites of rat urine and liver were analysed by 1H-NMR. Histopathological studies of liver samples from EK and VEK treated rats showed no negative impacts. In metabonomic analyses of urines, changes of metabolites indicated liver damages, kidney lesions and imbalance of gut microbes in the second week. VEK-treated rats showed a quite lower toxicity compared with EK-treated ones. The present study revealed that the metabonomic approach might be helpful for the evaluation of toxicity of EK and detoxic effect of VEK.