Toxic and side effects of rhubarb and its reasonable application in kidney diseases

Rhubarb was first recorded in the earliest Chinese medicine monograph Shen Nong′s Materia Medica, with its clinical application involving internal, external, women, children, and other clinical disciplines. With the wide application of rhubarb, it is getting more and more people′s attention how to better play the curative and preventive effects of rhubarb, and prevent and reduce its toxic and side effects. This article mainly reviewed the side effects of rhubarb from several aspects such as hepatotoxicity, nephrotoxicity, enterotoxicity, and the triple effects (mutagenesis, carcinogenesis, and teratogenesis) of rhubarb, and put forward the countermeasures of attenuating toxicity and increasing efficacy, especially its reasonable application in clinical kidney diseases, so as to provide a reference for the safe clinical use of rhubarb. Key words: Rhubarb; Toxic and side effects; Kidney disease; Reasonable use