A Metabonomic Approach to a Unique Detoxification Effect of Co‐use of Euphorbia kansui and Zizyphus jujuba

Euphorbia kansui (EK) has been widely used in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM); however, it possesses toxic effects. The fruits of Zizyphus jujuba (ZJ) are frequently co‐used with EK to reduce EK's toxicity. The present study is to clarify the toxicity of water extract of EK and explore the detox effect of ZJ using ¹H NMR‐based metabonomic approach. The water extracts of ZJ, EK and the co‐use of EK and ZJ (CEZ) were orally administered to SD rats at designed doses for 1 week, respectively, and one more week observation was further conducted. Histopathological studies of liver samples from all groups showed no negative impacts. In metabonomic analyses of urines, ZJ showed no toxicity, while significant changes of metabolites indicating liver damages, kidney lesions and imbalance of gut microbes were clearly observed during the second week in EK‐treated rats. Very meaningfully, CEZ clearly indicated that the toxicities appeared at the first week and became weaker, and furthermore, was recovered during the second week. These results clearly demonstrated the rationality of traditional co‐use of EK together with ZJ, and the metabonomic approach should be a promising tool to research the toxicity of TCM. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.