Abstract:Toxicity has become a major obstacle to the international use of traditional Chinese medicines, and a rational grading strategy for their toxicity is therefore needed. Although the existing traditional toxicity classification can help to guide the clinical use of traditional Chinese medicines, it lacks quantitative data and is not sufficiently accurate, with different sources reporting different toxicity classifications for the same drug. Modern research on toxicity classification mainly includes classification method based on LD50 of oral raw drugs, multi indicator comprehensive classification method, evaluation model of toxic traditional Chinese medicine based on “substance efficacy toxicity”, and the use of modern toxicology research models. Although these toxicity grading method achieve quantitative standards for traditional Chinese medicine toxicity grading, they deviate from the theoretical guidance of traditional Chinese medicine and differ significantly from clinical practice, failing to reflect the essence of clinical compound medication of traditional Chinese medicine. To sort previous studies on the toxicity of traditional Chinese medicines, this paper proposes a scoring and grading method based on data mining combined with toxicological studies. The proposed method is based on data mining of historical toxicity records for traditional Chinese medicines, clinical reports, and experimental in vitro and in vivo studies, as well as comprehensive modern toxicological research result, followed by the assignment of weighted scores to each item, to derive a toxicity classification method for traditional Chinese medicines. For example, aconite would be graded as highly toxic according to this procedure. This grading method has the advantages of focusing on clinical compound drug use, as well as providing guidance for clinical practice. It can quantitatively indicate the degree of toxicity, thus reflecting the modern characteristics of traditional Chinese medicine. This grading method needs further refinement, but after gradual improvement and refinement, this toxicity classification method for traditional Chinese medicines is expected to promote their rational clinical application and wider international use.