Prinsloo Gerhard, Ojo Olusesan, Rietjens Ivonne M C M
Department of Agriculture and Animal Health, University of South Africa, Florida, South Africa.
Division of Toxicology, Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands.
Arch Toxicol. 2025 Jul 11. doi: 10.1007/s00204-025-04123-y.
The use of botanicals and herbal products is increasing globally, especially in developed countries, but their active ingredients are often poorly defined and inconsistently regulated. Moreover, the chemical composition of plants is usually influenced by internal factors (such as genetics, phenology, and age) and external influences (such as environmental conditions). These influences can significantly alter chemical profiles, which is critical for plants used in food, cosmetics, and medicine. Growing concern over harmful compounds in these products highlights the variability in their levels. Specifically, some compounds in plants are known to have genotoxic or carcinogenic effects, and their concentrations can vary greatly depending on these factors. This paper reviews how factors like water stress, soil nutrients, geographic location, and plant development affect the presence of hazardous substances in plants. While genetic factors like chemotypes and cultivars are well-studied, less is known about how environmental and developmental conditions affect chemically uniform plants. Overall, the current work emphasizes the unpredictability of these effects and underscores the need for further research to compare the levels of hazardous compounds in plants against established human safety thresholds, to better assess exposure risks in food, cosmetic and herbal products.
植物药和草药产品在全球范围内的使用正在增加，尤其是在发达国家，但它们的活性成分往往定义不明确，监管也不一致。此外，植物的化学成分通常受内部因素（如遗传学、物候学和年龄）和外部影响（如环境条件）的影响。这些影响会显著改变化学特征，这对用于食品、化妆品和药品的植物至关重要。人们对这些产品中有害化合物的日益关注凸显了其含量的变异性。具体而言，已知植物中的一些化合物具有遗传毒性或致癌作用，其浓度会因这些因素而有很大差异。本文综述了水分胁迫、土壤养分、地理位置和植物发育等因素如何影响植物中有害物质的存在。虽然化学型和品种等遗传因素已得到充分研究，但对于环境和发育条件如何影响化学组成均一的植物，人们了解较少。总体而言，当前的研究强调了这些影响的不可预测性，并强调需要进一步开展研究，将植物中有害化合物的含量与既定的人体安全阈值进行比较，以便更好地评估食品、化妆品和草药产品中的接触风险。
