A scientometric visualization analysis for global toxicology and pharmacology research of natural products from 1962 to 2018

Background: A growing number of studies have been focused on the medicinal potential of natural products since 1962, while few scholars have analyzed the existing documents comprehensively. Purpose: Aiming to visualize the researches on toxicology and pharmacology of natural products (TPNP) published between 1962 and 2018, as well as to reveal their spatiotemporal patterns, a scientometric analysis with 3210 relevant documents collected from Web of Science was conducted in this study. Results: The most prominent contributors of TPNP research are mainly from the USA, China, Brazil, India and Germany. The knowledge domains of TPNP research focus mainly on the topics of (1) traditional Chinese medicine, (2) richardia grandiflora, (3) chemical conversion, (4) new generation, (5) modern medicine, (6) intelligent mixture, (7) hplc-based activity. Most countries have recognized the pharmaceutical potential of natural products, and have paid more attention to the pharmacological and toxicological characteristics of natural products in the past decade. Future TPNP research tends to focus more on complex analysis of mechanisms for diseases treatment, such as toxicology and pharmacology. Conclusion: This research has firstly demonstrated a comprehensive knowledge map for the existing toxicological and pharmacological researches of natural products, which offered essential instructions on medical application of natural products to future research.