Safety evaluation of traditional Chinese medicine: new era, new strategy

Abstract

Today, as the use of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) becomes widespread globally, TCM is confronted with numerous new safety issues and challenges. In particular, the frequent emergence of safety issues/events such as liver and kidney injury associated with traditionally “non-toxic” TCM has overturned the conventional understanding of the toxicity and safety of TCM. This has also posed significant challenges to the development and internationalization of TCM. So, how should we understand the situation and problems of TCM safety? How can we scientifically solve the problems in evaluation and risk control of TCM? Our team proposes the following: First, we must keep pace with the times and view the issues of TCM safety in a dialectical manner, without exaggeration or underestimation. Second, we must break through the traditional perception that toxicity only came from the medicine itself, and innovate the theories of TCM toxicity. Third, we must establish precise prevention and control strategies for TCM with different types of toxicity, promoting a shift in the management of TCM safety risks from passive response to scientific and proactive control. On this basis, we have put forward the concept and methodological system of the “New Outlook on TCM safety”, hoping to provide new theories, strategies, methods, and successful examples for systematically solving the problems in the evaluation and risk control of TCM.

Keywords

Hepatotoxicity / New Outlook on TCM Safety / Risk prevention / Safety evaluation / TCM

Conflict of interest statement

Xiaohe Xiao is an editorial board member of the journal. None of the other authors declare any conflicts of interest.

Funding

The work involved in this article was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81721002, 82230118) and the Consulting Project Funds of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (2023-XZ-88).

Author contributions

Xu Zhao and Xiaohe Xiao wrote the manuscript, Xu Zhao and Xiaoyan Zhan collected and summarized the literature, Zhaofang Bai and Jiabo Wang contributed to language modification and content adjustment. Yungchi Cheng and Xiaohe Xiao supervised and revised the manuscript. All authors approved the submitted version.

Ethical approval of studies and informed consent

Not applicable.

Acknowledgments

None.

Data availability

Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analyzed during the current study.

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Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine