Literature review of liver injury induced by Tinospora crispa associated with two cases of acute fulminant hepatitis

Abstract Introduction Species of Tinospora are used as herbal remedies for the treatment of various diseases with very few toxic effects having been reported. Tinospora cordifolia (TCF) has been reported to effectively prevent hepatotoxicity. However, there are an increasing number of cases revealing that Tinospora crispa (TCP) might have the negative effect of inducing hepatotoxicity. Because of the similar leaves, people may mistake TCP for TCF, and consume it with the purpose of protecting liver function. Objective Find out the misusing level of TCP and TCF and which chemical compound in TCP might induce hepatotoxicity. Methods We report two cases of acute fulminant hepatitis associated with chronic use of TCP. Given that the two herbs were misidentified in these two reports, we investigated the frequency of erroneous identification by using three keywords (“Guduchi”, “Tinospora cordifolia”, “Tinospora crispa”) to search images from the Google Images database. To further clarify the influence of liver function between TCP and TCF, we searched PubMed (up to 29 July 2018) for relevant publications on clinical trials or case reports. Results Based on web review, over 35 percent of websites failed to accurately identify these two herbs. The different effects on liver function between TCP and TCF were compared through literature review. It indicated that TCF exerted liver protection, TCP had a contrary effect, suggesting its cis -Clerodane-type furano-diterpenoids might be an important factor of inducing hepatotoxicity. Conclusions We concluded that people might cause hepatic injury or even death without correctly identifying these two Tinospora species.