The classification study of the toxicity of traditional medicines
Deng Jeng-Shyan Asia University
In the Compendium of Materia Medica (Ben Cao Gang Mu) created by Lee Shijin during the Ming Dynasty, over 1,892 different herbs are listed. In terms of toxicity, Traditional Chinese Medicines(TCM) were classified as extremely toxic (20 kinds), moderately toxic (156 kinds), low toxic (97 kinds) and slightly toxic (34 kinds). Most people think that because TCM has been used for thousands of years and so is proven and has no side-effects when used over a long period of time. The objective of this research was to create a list of potentially life-threatening TCM by rating the most serious side-effects of TCM consumption reported in the literature and establish the assess scale of TCM toxicity. Case reports datas were collected through free or fee-based database services such as Medline(http://medline.cos.com/), China Journal Full-text Database (http://cnki.csis.com.tw/), WanFang (http://www.wanfangdata.com.cn), HerbMed® (http://www.herbmed.org/), etc. A rating system was developed to rank potentially life-threatening conditions from TCM toxicity by Weng, Wei-Liang. The results of this study showed that incidence of adverse drug reactions (ADR) in extremely toxic (20 kinds), moderately toxic (156 kinds), low toxic (97 kinds) and slightly toxic (34 kinds) is 71.9% (1909/2657cases), 23.9% (635/2657cases), 4.2% (113/2657cases) and 0% (0/2657cases), respectively. TCM ranked in the top fifteen categories having potentially life-threatening side-effects include Radix Aconiti Lateralis, Radix Aconiti, Fugu, Folium Illicii, Mylabris, Flos Rhododendri, Semen Ricini, Gelsemium elegans, Radix Et Rhizoma Veratri Nigri, Plumbi Oxydum, Rhizoma Pinelliae Termatae, Semen Hyoscyami, Radix Platycodonis, Fructus Croti and Radix Euphorbiae Fischenianae. The outcome of the researchers used was the WHO vigibase definition. The incidence of ADR was the highest (83%) in the 17-69 aged , 29% in the 0-1 gram dosage , 56% in the abuse, 5% in the death and was 63% in the male and 33% in the female. The incidence of the digestive system lesion (32%) and that of lesion of nervous system and its appendages (30%) dominated in ADR, and ADR usually occurred within 30 min-3 hour after first dose (38%)
Year of 2007 / Number： CCMP96-RD-033
