Objective: To investigate the general toxicity and embryotoxicity of Shengbanxia decoction (BXd) as well as Ganjiang Renshen Banxia Tang (GJRSBXT)

a famous prescription from Synopsis of Golden Chamber

and explore their action mechanism. Method: General acute toxicity testing and flow cytometry were applied to compare the effects of BXd and GJRSBXT in 4 times of ZHANG Zhong-jing's dosage on body weight

viscera pathology and T lymphocyte subsets of unpregnant mice. Reproductive toxicity test in sensitive period of teratogenesis was applied to compare BXd and GJRSBXT on gestation and embryonic development in mice. Result: As compared with the normal group

there was no obvious toxicity on body weight and pathology of main organs in unpregnant mice after treatment with BXd (2.275 g·kg-1) or GJRSBXT (5.688 g·kg-1) for 14 days

there was no distinct toxicity on heart

liver and kidney of maternal mice and fetal indicators after the pregnant mice in sensitive period of teratogenesis were treated with BXd or GJRSBXT for 10 days. However

GJRSBXT induced obvious decrease of CD4+T cell and significant raise of CD8+T cell lymphocyte proportion of blood and spleen in unpregnant mice after short-term repeated administration for 14 days (P<0.05). Conclusion: All the above results suggest that BXd and GJRSBXT do not have embryotoxicity in the dosage of this experiment

but may be still accompanied by immunosuppression effect. The causes and mechanisms need further research for clarification.