Application progress on metabonomics in toxicity assessment and toxicologic studies of natural products / 中草药

ABSTRACT

To avoid toxic effects as much as possible and to safely use natural products, a more comprehensive understanding of toxicity is urgently needed. We generally believe that small molecule metabolites can represent the physiological or pathological state of an organism, so metabolomics-based toxicology studies can be used to assess toxicity as well as to identify toxicological biomarkers of natural products, which helps to guide clinical medications and reduce adverse drug reactions. In recent decades, dozens of metabolomics studies have been conducted in the evaluation of nephrotoxicity, hepatotoxicity, cardiotoxicity, and toxicity of the central nervous system induced by monomer compounds, extracts, and combination preparations. This article reviews the commonly used metabolomics techniques, including sample preparation, sample testing, data processing and analysis, as well as toxicology studies of natural products based on metabolomics. Finally, the potential problems and further prospects of this kind of research are discussed.