Developing an approach for evaluating the cardiotoxic potential of botanicals

Botanical supplements are widely used but often lack rigorous safety testing — especially for potential cardiotoxicity.

A new publication from the HESI Botanical Safety Consortium’s Cardiotoxicity Working Group outlines a human-relevant strategy using New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) to assess cardiac risks of botanicals. These include the use of in vitro assays such as microelectrode arrays and optical mapping with cardiomyocyte models. The manuscript also describes botanicals known to induce cardiotoxicity that will be used as case studies to evaluate the utility of the assays for botanicals as complex mixtures.

This figure from the paper illustrates the NAM-based cardiotoxicity screening strategy for botanicals.

This approach offers a science-based, efficient path to evaluate complex botanical mixtures — supporting safer product use and advancing alternatives to animal testing.

Read the full article: Krzykwa et al., 2025. Developing an approach for evaluating the cardiotoxic potential of botanicals. Frontiers in Toxicology. https://doi.org/10.3389/ftox.2025.1646044