Abstract
Plants are used by humans in daily life in many different ways, including as food, herbal medicines, and cosmetics. Unfortunately, many natural plants and their chemical constituents are photocytotoxic and photogenotoxic, and these phototoxic phytochemicals are widely present in many different plant families. To date, information concerning the phototoxicity and photogenotoxicity of many plants and their chemical constituents is limited. In this review, we discuss phototoxic plants and their major phototoxic constituents; routes of human exposure; phototoxicity of these plants and their constituents; general mechanisms of phototoxicity of plants and phototoxic components; and several representative phototoxic plants and their photoactive chemical constituents.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We thank Dr. Jiekun Xuan for critical review of this manuscript. This article is not an official guidance or policy statement of US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). No official support or endorsement by the US FDA is intended or should be inferred.