title: Typical toxic components in traditional Chinese medicine.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is widely used around the world. However, with its wide use has been the identification of a number of toxicological issues that have severely restricted its use in clinical treatment. The identification of these toxic substances within TCM has become somewhat of a hot topic in recent years.
  
  
  METHODS
  This article reviews literature published on professional authoritative journals in the last 10 years on the toxic constituents and toxicology of TCM, including chemical structures, absorption and metabolism. The literature search for this article was based, but not limited to, toxic constituents including: alkaloids, glycosides, toxic proteins, polypeptide, amino acids, phenols or organic acids, terpenes and lactones. The authors discuss the toxic substances referring to their toxicity on organs, tissues and systems.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  More and more toxic constituents from different TCMs have been identified, in addition to information on how they act in the body at a molecular level. However, the toxicology of TCMs is very complex, and although some progress has been made, a lot work is still needed in order to put an end to toxic incidents.
authors.affiliation: South China University of Technology, College of Food and Bioengineering, Guangzhou, 510640, China. jgjiang@scut.edu.cn
authors.forename: Wen
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Lv
authors.forename: Jin-Hua
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Piao
authors.forename: Jian-Guo
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Jiang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000737:chemistry / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D006801:Humans; D008516:Medicine, Chinese Traditional / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal