The meaning of "poisonous" in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is different from that of modern medicine. Narrow meaning of "poisonous" in TCM refers to harmful reaction to human body. Otherwise, generalized meaning of "poisonous" has two main implications: general title of drug and eccentric nature for drug. To fully reveal the scientific content of Chinese herbal toxic theory, we should carry out our research on the relationship between Chinese herbal toxicity and body state under the guidance of TCM theory. Moreover, comprehensive study on toxic information is also necessary for clarifying the natural characteristics of Chinese herbal medicine.
Drug-Related Side Effects and Adverse Reactions ; chemically induced ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; toxicity ; Humans ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; adverse effects ; trends ; Phytotherapy ; adverse effects ; Research ; trends

Objective To determine the effect of inhaling rosemary compound essential oil on learning and memory and the expression of choline acetyl transferase (ChAT) in the CA1 region of the hippocampus in rats with vascular dementia (VD).Methods A modified 2-VO method was used to induce permanent brain hypoperfusion,and thus VD,in 60 male SD rats aged 2 months.They were then randomly divided into a normal control group (n =10),a sham-operation group (n =10),a model group (n =10),a rosemary compound essential oil group (n =10) and an edaravone group (n =10).The rosemary compound essential oil group inhaled a compound of the essential oils of rosemary,eugenol and peppermint once a day; the edaravone group was given a daily injection of edaravone injecta.Both the interventions lasted for 65 days.A water maze was used to test their learning and memory abilities.Morphological damage in the CA1 region of the hippocampus and the expression of ChAT were also observed.Results The learning and memory abilities of the model group were significantly weaker compared with the sham-operated group and the normal controls.The rats in the rosemary compound essential oil and edaravone groups were obviously better than those in the model group,but there was no significant difference between rosemary compound essential oil group and the edaravone group.The morphological damage observed in the hippocampus and striatum of the model group was significantly greater,on average,than that observed in the rosemary compound essential oil group and the edaravone group.The average number of ChAT positive units in the CA1 region of the hippocampus was significantly greater in both the rosemary compound essential oil group and the edaravone group compared with the model group,but there was no significant difference between the rosemary compound essential oil group and the edaravone group.Conclusions Inhaling rosemary compound essential oil can improve the learning and memory abilities of rats with VD caused by permanent chronic brain hypoperfusion.It decreases the damage to the neurons of the hippocampus,increases the expression of ChAT,and shows a therapeutic effect on VD,at least in rats.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the expression of Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4)/myeloid differentiation factor (MyD88)/nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) pathway genes and related inflammatory factors tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin (IL)-12, IL-6 in patients with secondary spinal cord injury (SSCI) and the correlations with prognosis. METHODS: The clinical data of 105 SSCI patients and 40 healthy subjects were reviewed. According to Frankel's classification of spinal cord injury, the patients were divided into complete injury group and incomplete injury group, and according to the improvement of Japanese Orthopedic Association (JOA) scores, the patients were divided into good prognosis group and poor prognosis group. The expression of TLR4, MyD88, NF-κB in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and serum TNF-α, IL-12, IL-6 levels were compared between SSCI patients and healthy controls, between patients with complete and incomplete injury, between patients with poor and good prognosis. Logistic regression analysis was used to analyze the risk factors leading to poor prognosis of SSCI, and Pearson's correlation analysis was used to analyze the correlation between JOA score and the above indicators. RESULTS The expressions of TLR4, MyD88, NF-κB in PBMC and serum TNF-α, IL-12, IL-6 levels in SSCI patients were significantly higher than those in healthy subjects (all P<0.01), those in complete injury group were higher than those in incomplete injury group, and those in poor prognosis group were higher than those in good prognosis group (all P<0.01). The proportions of patients with Frankel grade A, spinal cord edema or hemorrhage, spinal cord injury length longer than 4 cm in poor prognosis group was significantly higher than those in good prognosis group (all P<0.01). Logistic regression analysis showed that Frankel grade, spinal cord edema or hemorrhage, length of spinal cord injury, relative expressions of TLR4, MyD88, NF-κB in PBMC, serum levels of TNF-α, IL-12 and IL-6 were risk factors for poor prognosis in SSCI patients (P<0.05 or P<0.01). Pearson's correlation analysis showed that JOA improvement rate was negatively correlated with the relative expressions of TLR4, MyD88, NF-κB mRNA in PBMC and serum TNF-α, IL-12, IL-6 levels (P<0.05 or P<0.01). CONCLUSIONS The activation of TLR4/MyD88/NF-κB pathway and the up-regulation of the expression of related inflammatory factors TNF-α, IL-12 and IL-6 are involved in the progression of SSCI, which are closely related to the neuroinflammatory injury, and can be used as reference indexes for evaluating prognosis in SSCI patients.