Abstract: Objective To explore and summarize the nephrotoxic effects and usage of traditional Chinese medicines based on the Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Toxicology Database(TCMSTD). Methods The TCMSTD was used to screen and analyze the toxic Chinese medicinal materials included according to their types of toxicity, and to summarize the properties, taste, efficacy, and meridian tropism of Chinese medicinal materials with nephrotoxicity. Results There were 101 types of traditional Chinese medicines that were found to cause nephrotoxicity, the nephrotoxic effects which could be divided into four types based on the locations of renal injury: renal tubular injury, acute tubular necrosis, glomerular injury and renal interstitial injury. The same traditional Chinese medicine might cause damage of varying degrees to different parts of the kidney. There were a total of 27 toxic components with renal toxicity in traditional Chinese medicines, which belonged to 13 types of components such as alkaloids and phenols. Statistical analysis of the targets of nephrotoxic components revealed that the targets with the highest repetition frequency were ESR1 and ALOX5, with a frequency of 21. One hundred and one types of nephrotoxic traditional Chinese medicines had mostly cold and warm properties. The medicinal taste was mainly bitter and spicy. The meridians were mostly attributed to the liver, lung, spleen, and kidney meridians. Conclusion The properties of traditional Chinese medicines with nephrotoxicity are mostly cold and warm, and the taste is mainly bitter and spicy. The distribution of drug efficacy is relatively uniform, indicating that TCM practitioners should pay attention to dosage and compatibility in daily use to reduce the drug-caused damage to the kidney.

Key words: Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Toxicology Database(TCMSTD), nephrotoxicity, traditional Chinese medicine, toxic components, mechanism of action, detoxification methods, study on usage