Identification of toxicology biomarker and evaluation of toxicity of natural products by metabolomic applications

Natural product plays a vital role in the prevention and treatment of diseases since the appearance of civilization, but the toxicity severely hinders its wide use. To avoid toxic effect as far as possible and use natural product safely, more comprehensive understandings of toxicity are urgently required. Since the metabolome represents the physiological or pathological status of organisms, metabolomics-based toxicology is of significance to observe potential injury before toxins have caused physiological or pathological damages. Metabolomics-based toxicology can evaluate toxicity and identify toxicological biomarker of natural product, which is helpful to guide clinical medication and reduce adverse drug reactions. In this chapter, metabolomic technology, sample preparation, data process and analysis, and metabolomics-based toxicological research of natural product are reviewed, and finally the potential problems and further perspectives in toxicological metabolomic investigations of natural product are discussed.