1. Introduction
With the development of science and technology, and the increasing health awareness and life
expectancy of humans, the safety problem of traditional Chinese medicines (TCM) is attracting more
and more attention. The dried roots of Euphorbia kansui T.N. Liou ex T.P. Wang, known as “kansui,”
which were recorded in Shennong-Bencao and have been used for centuries in China as a herbal
medicine for edema, ascites, and asthma [1,2]. Recently, it was found that kansui has excellent
prospects for the treatment of cancer [2–6], pancreatitis [7–9], and intestinal obstruction [10,11].
However, kansui causes severe skin, oral, and gastrointestinal irritation, hepatic injury and tumor
promoting toxicity, which have seriously restricted its clinical application [12–16]. So, outweighing all
other considerations is the need to understand the toxicity mechanism of kansui, and further to reduce
its toxicity without affecting its therapeutic action.