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Toxics
Special Issues
Harmful Substances and Safety Evaluation of Herbal Medicines
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Harmful Substances and Safety Evaluation of Herbal Medicines

A special issue of Toxics (ISSN 2305-6304). This special issue belongs to the section "Drugs Toxicity".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 August 2025 | Viewed by 391

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Jianbo Yang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
National Institutes for Food and Drug Control, Beijing 100050, China
Interests: toxic herbs; endogenous harmful substances; safety evaluation; quality standard
Dr. Ying Wang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
National Institutes for Food and Drug Control, Beijing, China
Interests: herbal medicine; exogenous harmful substances; risk assessment; quality control
Prof. Dr. Hongtao Jin

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
New Drug Safety Evaluation Center, Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China
Interests: identification, effective control and transformation of drug toxicity risk factors; lung injury and lung protection; safety evaluation

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Herbal medicines (HMs) have made a great contribution to human health. However, some HMs may contain endogenous and exogenous harmful substances, such as aristolochic acid, anthraquinones, and pesticide residue. In order to ensure public health, it is necessary to study these endogenous and exogenous harmful substances, and then safety evaluation should also be provided. New methods and technology should be widely used to discover harmful substances and further evaluate the safety of HMs. Meanwhile, certain security guidelines can be imposed to decrease the reappearance of adverse side effects (ADRs) from HMs.

This Special Issue collects original research and reviews that help elucidate the current knowledge on harmful substance and safety evaluations of HMs.

Dr. Jianbo Yang
Dr. Ying Wang
Prof. Dr. Hongtao Jin
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Toxics is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • endogenous harmful substances
  • exogenous harmful substances
  • risk assessment
  • safety evaluation
  • security guidelines

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

18 pages, 1878 KiB  
Article
Molecular Mechanisms Contributing to the Impairment of Steroid Hormones, Sperm Characteristics, and Testicular Architecture in Male Rabbits After Chronic Exposure to Cadmium: Role of Gallic Acid and Selenium as Antioxidants
by Salah A. Sheweita, Saleh M. Al-Qahtani, Rofida M. Ahmed, Mohamed S. Sheweita and Ahmed Atta
Toxics 2025, 13(4), 323; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics13040323 - 21 Apr 2025
Viewed by 180
Abstract
One hazardous material that occurs naturally in the environment and induces oxidative stress is cadmium (Cd). Epidemiological data revealed that exposure to cadmium in the workplace and environment might be linked to many illnesses and serious testicular injuries. Aims: It is taught that [...] Read more.
One hazardous material that occurs naturally in the environment and induces oxidative stress is cadmium (Cd). Epidemiological data revealed that exposure to cadmium in the workplace and environment might be linked to many illnesses and serious testicular injuries. Aims: It is taught that antioxidants can protect different organs against environmental toxic compounds. Therefore, the current investigation aims to show the role of antioxidants (gallic acid and selenium) in the protection against cadmium toxicity, including the architecture of the testes, semen properties, steroid hormones, protein expression of cytochrome P450 [CYP 19 and 11A1] contributing to the production of steroid hormones, and antioxidant enzyme activities, in male rabbits. Methods: Male rabbits were given cadmium orally three times/week [1 mg/kg BW] for twelve weeks. In addition, gallic acid (20 mg/kg) or selenium (1 mg/kg BW) was administered two hours before cadmium treatment. This investigation included a spectrophotometer, histopathology, and Western immunoblotting techniques. Results: Cadmium treatment significantly reduced sperm counts, testosterone, and estrogen levels after four, eight, and twelve weeks of treatment. In addition, after a 12-week treatment of rabbits with cadmium, the activity of 17β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase and antioxidant enzymes, including catalase, superoxide dismutase, glutathione reductase, glutathione peroxidase, and glutathione S-transferase, as well as the glutathione levels, were inhibited in the testes tissue. On the other hand, following cadmium treatment, rabbit’s testes showed a discernible increase in free radical levels. Interestingly, the activity of antioxidant enzymes and level of free radicals were recovered in rabbits treated with gallic acid or selenium before cadmium treatment. In addition, after 12 weeks of cadmium treatment, the steroidogenic protein expressions of CYP 11A1 and CYP 19 were upregulated and downregulated in the testes, respectively. Interestingly, after pretreatment of rabbits with either gallic acid or selenium for two hours before cadmium administration, the downregulated CYP11A1 was restored to normal levels. In the histopathological investigation, immature spermatozoids and sloughed spermatogonium cells were observed in cadmium-treated rabbits’ testes. On the other hand, pretreatments of rabbits with gallic acid or selenium mitigated and alleviated the adverse effects of cadmium on testes architecture and increased the production of healthy sperm. Conclusions: The lower levels of steroid hormones could be due to the downregulation of CYP11A1, inhibition of 17β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase, antioxidant enzyme activities, and the induction of free radical levels. Furthermore, the pretreatment of rabbits with gallic acid or selenium mitigated the adverse effects of cadmium on the tissue architecture of testes and steroid hormone levels. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Harmful Substances and Safety Evaluation of Herbal Medicines)
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