Psoralea corylifolia L. (PCL) is widely used in clinical practice and is commonly used in the treatment of osteoporosis, tumors, and dermatosis. However, in recent years, adverse reactions of PCL and its related preparations have been frequently reported, and there are even case reports of acute liver injury caused by taking PCL alone, which seriously affects the safe and rational clinical application of PCL. In this paper, the main chemical components, pharmacology, and toxicology of PCL are analyzed and summarized, and the effect-toxicity relationship of PCL and its main active components are sorted out and compared. On this basis, the active components of PCL for treating osteoporosis and causing hepatotoxicity are further systematically compared and summarized, to clarify its effect-toxicity relationship, reduce the toxicity risk of PCL, increase the benefit/risk ratio and provide evidence for the safe clinical application of PCL.
Acknowledgments
We thank the National Natural Science Foundation of China for funding.
Funding
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 82004057).
Conflict of interest
JBW has served as general General Editor-in-Chief, and YG has been an editorial board member of Future Integrative Medicine since November 2021. The authors have no other conflict of in-terests to report.
Author contributions
Study concept and design (JBW and YG), acquisition of the litera-ture (CC), and drafting of the manuscript (YKZ). All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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