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Traditional
Toxicity Documentation of Chinese Materia
Medica—An Overview
ALBERT Y. LEUNG
Phyto-Technologies, Inc., Woodbine, Iowa 51579, USA
ABSTRACT |
Documentation of Chinese materia medica
(CMM) dates back to around 1,100 BC when only dozens of drugs were
first described. By the end of the 16th century, the number of
drugs documented had reached close to 1,900. And by the end of
the last century, published records of CMM have reached 12,800
drugs. The recorded traditional information includes
toxicities, incompatibilities, cautions, precautions and
contraindications. Thus, contrary to a general misconception,
toxicity data on Chinese herbs exist and are not meager. If
consulted properly before embarking on a study of CMM, it will save
researchers much time and efforts and the frustration of not
obtaining consistent or expected results. The history of
documentation is reviewed with examples of major classic and
contemporary works highlighting and emphasizing the manner in which
CMM toxicities have traditionally been documented through clinical
experience as opposed to most modern toxicity data that are based on
animal experimentation.
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