Psoraleae Fructus (PF) is an important traditional herbal medicine with a long history of clinical application. It is widely used to treat various diseases, such as osteoporosis, leucoderma and diarrhea. As a traditional nontoxic herb, it has aroused worldwide concern about the potential risks due to increasing adverse reaction events. This article reviews the botany, ancient records of medical uses, adverse reactions, toxicological research advance and detoxification methods of PF. According to clinical studies, liver injury is the most predominant in PF-related adverse reactions. The underlying mechanisms include bile acid metabolism and transport disorders, oxidative stress, mitochondrial damage, inhibition of liver cell regeneration and inflammatory reactions. Furthermore, the potential toxins of PF are summarized. Traditional methods of processing and compatibility will provide reference for reducing the toxicity of PF, which requires further research. In sum, this work systematically summarizes the reserach progress on the safety of PF, which will provide comprehensive insights into the toxicity of PF and facilitate its safe use and future development.
Drugs, Chinese Herbal/toxicity* ; Fruit/toxicity* ; Liver

To study the time-toxicity relationship and mechanism of Gardeniae Fructus extract on the hepatoxicity in rats. Rats were randomly divided into C group(0 day), D5 group(5 days), D12 group(12 days), D19 group(19 days), and D26 group(7 days recovery after 19 days of administration). The rats in normal group received normal saline through intragastric administration, and the rats in other groups received 10 g·kg~(-1 )Gardeniae Fructus extract through intragastric administration. After the final administration, the livers were collected. Hematoxylin-eosin staining was used to observe the histopathological changes in the liver tissue. Total liver proteins were extracted for proteomic analysis, detected by the Nano-ESI liquid-mass spectrometry system and identified by Protein Disco-very software. SIEVE software was used for relative quantitative and qualitative analysis of proteins. The protein-protein interaction network was constructed based on STRING. Cytoscape software was used for cluster analysis of differential proteins. Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes(KEGG) database was used to perform enrichment signal pathway analysis. Pearson correlation analysis was performed for the screened differential protein expression and liver pathology degree score. The results showed that the severity of liver injury in D5, D12 and D19 groups was significantly higher than that in group C. The degree of liver damage in D5 group was slightly higher than that in D12 and D19 groups, with no significant difference between group D26 and group C. Totally 147 key differential proteins have been screened out by proteomics and mainly formed 6 clusters, involving in drug metabolism pathways, retinol metabolism pathways, proteasomes, amino acid biosynthesis pathways, and glycolysis/gluconeogenesis pathways. The results of Pearson correlation analysis indicated that differential protein expressions had a certain temporal relationship with the change of liver pathological degree. The above results indicated that the severity of liver damage caused by Gardeniae Fructus extract did not increase with time and would recover after drug with drawal. The above pathways may be related to the mechanism of liver injury induced by Gardeniae Fructus extract.
Animals ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal/toxicity* ; Fruit ; Gardenia ; Liver ; Proteomics ; Rats ; Signal Transduction

ABSTRACT Fruits have nutrients and health-promoting compounds and usually fruits are eaten fresh with minimally processed. To meet rising demand, the production and processing of horticultural crops of fruits have grown massively in response to the population and changing dietary habits. It is rarely known that some fruit wastes, including peel, actually have their own advantages to humans as well as industry. In fact, these fruit wastes, including fruit peel, should be handled and used to minimise the environmental impacts. The functional properties of the peel of banana, pomegranate, papaya, and citrus fruits such as lemon and orange can beneficially help in the production of new health products and in food industries. Antimicrobial compounds in fruit peel play an important role in inhibiting the microbial growth, specifically pathogenic microorganisms such as Escherichia coli, Bacillus aureus, Campylobacter, Salmonella, and Staphylococcus aureus. The antimicrobial compounds present in the fruit peel are typically secondary metabolites consisting, in particular, of phenolic compounds, steroids and alkaloids, which give certain functional effects on human health. It has been reported that every fruit peel has its own antimicrobial compounds which are responsible for inhibiting microbial growth. These fruit peel, despite their beneficial effects, have also been shown to have toxicity effects on their consumption depending on the amount of doses used in the implementation. This review covers physiological properties, chemical properties, antimicrobial activity, and the toxicity analysis of the fruit peels from banana, pomegranate, papaya, and citrus fruits.
Anti-Infective Agents ; Toxicity Tests ; Fruit ; Citrus

Xanthii Fructus is a traditional Chinese medicine for the treatment of sinusitis and headache,rich in medicinal materials and is widely used for more than 1 800 years. Modern pharmacological studies have showed that Xanthii Fructus has anti-inflammatory,analgesic,anti-tumor,anti-bacterial,hypoglycemic,anti-allergic,immunomodulatory and other pharmacological effects,which can be commonly used in the treatment of diseases relating to immune abnormalities,such as rheumatoid arthritis,acute and chronic rhinitis,allergic rhinitis,and skin diseases,with a high medicinal value. Toxicological studies have shown that Xanthii Fructus poisoning can cause substantial damage to organs,such as the liver,kidney,and gastrointestinal tract,especially to liver. Because of the coexisting of its efficacy and toxicity,Xanthii Fructus often leads to a series of safety problems in the clinical application process. This study attempts to summarize its characteristics of adverse reactions,analyze the root cause of the toxicity of Xanthii Fructus from such aspects as processing,dose,course of treatment and eating by mistake,discuss the substance of its efficacy/toxicity from chemical compositions,and put forward exploratory thinking about how to promote its clinical rational application from the aspects such as strict processing,reasonable compatibility,medication information,contraindication,strict control of the dose,and course of treatment,so as to promote the safe and reasonable application of Xanthii Fructus.
Drugs, Chinese Herbal/therapeutic use* ; Fruit/toxicity* ; Humans ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Xanthium/toxicity*

The fruits of Paulownia catalpifolia Gong Tong are used as a Chinese folk herbal medicine for the treatment of enteritis, tonsillitis, bronchitis, and dysentery, etc. Our previous study has identified new C-geranylated flavanones with obvious anti-proliferative effects in lung cancer A549 cells. In the present study, a new C-geranylated flavone, paucatalinone C (1) and five known C-geranylated flavanones (2-6) were isolated. In addition, a total of 34 C-geranylated flavonoids were detected by HPLC-DAD-ESI-MS/MS coupling techniques from the CHCl extract of P. catalpifolia. Futhermore, anti-aging effects of isolated compounds were evaluated in vitro with premature senescent 2BS cells induced by HO. Phytochemical results indicated that P. catalpifolia was a natural resource of abundant C-geranylated flavonoids. Diplacone (3) and paucatalinone A (5) were the potent anti-aging agents in the premature senescent 2BS cells induced by HO and the C-geranyl substituent may be an important factor because of its lipophilic character.
Aging ; drug effects ; Cell Line ; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid ; Flavonoids ; chemistry ; isolation & purification ; pharmacology ; Fruit ; chemistry ; Humans ; Hydrogen Peroxide ; toxicity ; Magnoliopsida ; chemistry ; Molecular Structure ; Plant Extracts ; chemistry ; isolation & purification ; pharmacology ; Tandem Mass Spectrometry

Cranberry extract (CBE) rich in polyphenols are potent to delay paralysis induced by alleviating β-amyloid (Aβ) toxicity in C. elegans model of Alzheimer's disease (AD). In order to better apply CBE as an anti-AD agent efficiently, we sought to deterrmine whether preventive or therapeutic effect contributes more prominently toward CBE's anti-AD activity. As the level of Aβ toxicity and memory health are two major pathological parameters in AD, in the present study, we compared the effects of CBE on Aβ toxicity and memory health in the C. elegans AD model treated with preventive and therapeutic protocols. Our results revealed that CBE prominently showed the preventive efficacy, providing a basis for further investigation of these effects in mammals.
Alzheimer Disease ; drug therapy ; genetics ; metabolism ; psychology ; Amyloid beta-Peptides ; metabolism ; toxicity ; Animals ; Caenorhabditis elegans ; drug effects ; metabolism ; Dietary Supplements ; analysis ; Disease Models, Animal ; Female ; Fruit ; chemistry ; Humans ; Male ; Memory ; drug effects ; Plant Extracts ; administration & dosage ; Vaccinium macrocarpon ; chemistry

This study is to study is to investigate the coumarins from Fruit of Cnidium monnieri and their cytotoxic activities. The constituents were separated by column chromatography, and their structures were elucidated by spectroscopic data analyses. The isolated compounds were evaluated for their cytoxic activities by MTT method. Eleven compounds were isolated and identified as osthole (1), bergaptan (2), xanthotoxol (3), xanthotoxin (4), imperatorin (5), isopimpinellin (6), osthenol (7), psoralen (8), 5,7-dimethoxycoumarin (9), oxypeucedaninhydrate (10), and swietenocoumarin F (11). Compounds 7, 9-11 were isolated from the Cnidium genus for the first time. Compounds 1,5,10 and 11 showed significant cytotoxic activities against L1210 cell lines at a concentration of 1 x 10(-5) mol x L(-1) with inhibitory rates of were 70.13, 63.10, 55.77, and 75.08% respectively.
Animals ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Cell Proliferation ; drug effects ; Cnidium ; chemistry ; toxicity ; Coumarins ; chemistry ; isolation & purification ; toxicity ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; isolation & purification ; toxicity ; Fruit ; chemistry ; toxicity ; Mice ; Molecular Structure

OBJECTIVETo preliminarily study the effective dosage range and mechanism of the abirritation of volatile oil of Evodia Fructus on the stomach cold syndrome model in mice, and discuss the correlation between its accompanying toxicity and oxidative damage mechanism, in order to provide the experimental basis for explaining the efficacy-syndrome-toxicity correlation.

METHODThe stomach cold-syndrome model in mice was induced by the classic hot plate test by orally administrating with different doses of volatile oil of Evodia Fructus, in order to observe its abirritation and companying toxic and side effects and detect serum ALT, AST, PGE2, NO, NOS, MDA, SOD, GSH, GSH-Px, BUN, CR and hepatic ALT, AST. The companying toxic symptoms in mice were recorded in toxic reaction integral table.

RESULTVolatile oil of Evodia Fructus had an obvious analgesic effect at 30 min after the oral administration and reached the peak effect at 60 min, with certain "dose-effect" and "time-effect" relations, rises in serum and hepatic ALT and AST levels, serum PGE2, MDA, NO and NOS and hepatic indexes, decreases in SOD, GSH and GSH-Px and no notable change in BUN, CR levels and kidney weight/body ratio. Conclusion: The abirritation mechanism of volatile oil of Evodia Fructus was related to the inhibition of pain transmitter release, peroxidative damage and NO damage, which is accompanied by certain hepatotoxicity, mainly mainly oxidative damage, with a concurrent "dose-time-toxicity" relationship.

Animals ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; administration & dosage ; toxicity ; Evodia ; chemistry ; toxicity ; Female ; Fruit ; chemistry ; toxicity ; Humans ; Liver ; drug effects ; metabolism ; Mice ; Oils, Volatile ; administration & dosage ; toxicity ; Oxidative Stress ; drug effects ; Stomach ; drug effects ; metabolism ; Stomach Diseases ; drug therapy ; metabolism

OBJECTIVETo study the molecular mechanism of extracts from Euodia rutaecarpa on hepatotoxicity in mice.

METHODTotally 30 KM mice were divided into 3 groups and orally administrated extracts from E. rutaecarpa for consecutively 15 days. The expressions of Erkl/2, CDK8, CK1e, Stat3 and Src were detected by Western blotting method.

RESULTThe extracts from E. rutaecarpa could up-regulated Erkl/2, CDK8 and CK1e expressions (P <0.01) and down-regulate Stat3 and Src (P <0.01).

CONCLUSIONThe molecular mechanism of E. rutaecarpa on hepatotoxicity may be correlated with Erkl/2, CDK8, CKle, Stat3 and Src signal molecules.

Alanine Transaminase ; blood ; Animals ; Aspartate Aminotransferases ; blood ; Down-Regulation ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; toxicity ; Evodia ; chemistry ; Female ; Fruit ; chemistry ; Gene Expression Regulation ; drug effects ; Liver ; drug effects ; metabolism ; Male ; Mice ; Plants, Medicinal ; Signal Transduction ; drug effects ; Specific Pathogen-Free Organisms ; Triglycerides ; blood ; Up-Regulation

OBJECTIVETo study potential antioxidant, analgesic, antidiarrheal, and antibacterial activities of the ethanol extract of Musa seminifera Lour. fruit in different established in vivo and in vitro experimental models.

METHODSIn vitro antioxidant activity was studied in 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical-scavenging assay. Phenolic content was determined using Folin-Ciocalteu's reagent. Reducing ability was evaluated by ferric reducing power assay. Peripherally and centrally acting analgesic activity was studied in three different in vivo models, namely, acetic acid-induced writhing, hot-plate test, and tail-flick test in Swiss albino mice. In vivo antidiarrheal activity was evaluated in castor oil- and magnesium sulfate-induced diarrhea in mice. Gastrointestinal motility test was also carried out in mice. All studies in mice were undertaken at the doses of 250 and 500 mg/kg body weight. Antibacterial activity was assessed by disk diffusion assay against some Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterial strains. Acute toxicity test was conducted to assess the safe doses of the extract.

RESULTSThe extract showed 50% inhibitory concentration value of 12.65 μg/mL in DPPH radical-scavenging assay. Phenolic content was found to be 589.83 mg gallic acid equivalent per 100 g of dried fruits extract. Reducing power was in a concentration-dependent manner, and strongly comparable with the standard ascorbic acid. The extract demonstrated significant inhibition of writhing in acetic acid-induced writhing test at both dose levels (P<0.01). The extract also raised pain threshold in both hot-plate and tail-flick test in a dose-dependent manner, and the results were statistically significant (P<0.01). The extract significantly (P<0.01) increased latent period, and decreased defecation in both castor oil- and magnesium sulfate-induced diarrhea. The extract also decreased gastrointestinal motility in mice. In disk diffusion assay, the extract showed potential antibacterial activity against all the tested bacterial strains.

CONCLUSIONThe results suggest that the ethanol extract of M. seminifera fruit has potential antioxidant, analgesic, antidiarrheal, and antibacterial activities.

Analgesics ; pharmacology ; Animals ; Anti-Bacterial Agents ; pharmacology ; Antidiarrheals ; pharmacology ; Antioxidants ; pharmacology ; Female ; Fruit ; Male ; Mice ; Musa ; Plant Extracts ; pharmacology ; toxicity