ABSTRACT
Locoweeds are presently defined as those species of the genera Oxytropis and Astragalus (family Leguminosae) that specifically contain the key toxic constituent,swainsonine.After ingesting locoweeds,livestock can develop poisoning disease characterized by chronic dysfunction of the nervous system,which causes severe economic losses to the pastoral areas.In addition,swainsonine has attracted a great attention from toxicology and medicine fields,due to its dual role of toxicity and pharmacological activity.This review not only summarizes the latest research progress of toxicity and its poisoning mechanism,pharmacological activity,source,and biosynthesis pathway of swainsonine,but also speculates the possible regulatory enzymes involved in the synthesis pathway.Moreover,the future research on swainsonine is also looked ahead,which provide references for the prevention and treatment of locoism.