Ledeb.: A review of its traditional uses, botany, phytochemistry, pharmacology, and toxicology.

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: Ledeb. is the dried above-ground part of dragon's tooth grass, a plant of the Rosaceae family, which is widely distributed in China, Korea, and Japan. Ledeb. is a herbal medicine with great scope for development and use. It is astringent and hemostatic, and it is used for treating malaria, preventing dysentery, detoxification, and as a tonic for deficiency.

Aim Of The Review: We summarize the traditional uses, botanical and chemical composition, extraction methods, and pharmacological and toxicological progress of Ledeb. and discuss the future research trends and development prospects of this plant.

Materials And Methods: Information on Ledeb. was gathered via the Internet (China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Google Scholar, PubMed, Web of Science, SpringerLink, Wiley, Wanfang Data, and Baidu Academic). Additional information was obtained from books (Ben Cao Tu Jing, A Textual Research on the Name and Reality of Plants, Modern Practical Chinese Medicine, Zhen Nan Ben Cao) and PhD and MS dissertations.

Results: Phytochemical studies have identified more than 252 compounds from Ledeb., including flavonoids, volatile oils, tannins, phenols, m-benzotrienols, pentacyclic triterpenoids, isocoumarins, lignans, organic acids, and other chemical constituents. The compounds and extracts isolated from Ledeb. show various pharmacological activities, including anti-inflammatory, anticancer, antitumor effects, antioxidant, analgesic effects, and other pharmacological effects.

Conclusion: This review highlights the botany, phytochemistry, pharmacology, toxicology, and traditional uses of Ledeb., providing a basis for future research and clinical applications. Ledeb. has shown remarkable effectiveness in the treatment of various diseases, especially enteritis, gastric ulcers, and gastrointestinal bleeding. Most prescriptions for Ledeb. are empirical and lack rigorous clinical observation. For these reasons, the toxicology, standardized clinical studies, nature of active ingredients, pharmacokinetics, mechanism, and metabolism of Ledeb. should be deepened, especially through clinical trials, to ensure the clinical safety of its use for further research.