Rhubarb is commonly known as “General”, and is produced in Sichuan as a local medicinal herb, and is mostly prescribed with the “Sichuan Army” logo. It is one of the oldest and most commonly used medicinal herbs, as it is contained in the earliest extant pharmacological monograph “Shennong Ben Cao Jing”. According to incomplete statistics, there are 801 kinds of national standard compound Chinese patent medicines containing rhubarb. The American scholar Taylor’s monograph “Plants that Changed the World” also listed rhubarb as one of the dozen traditional medicines that influenced the world. It is commonly used in the treatment of stagnation in the intestines, constipation, blood stagnation, vomiting, epistaxis, headache, sore throat, gum swelling and pain due to blood heat and inflammation, heat sores and burns, abdominal pain due to postpartum stasis, incomplete dew, menstrual stasis, bruises, bruises, swelling and pain, etc. The main active ingredient in rhubarb is: anthraquinone derivatives. It exists in two forms, partly free and mostly combined with glucose to form anthraquinone glycosides. The free type of glycosides include rhubarb acid, rehmannia rhubarbin, rhubarbin formaldehyde and rhubarbol. The pharmacological efficacy of rhubarb has been confirmed through clinical and animal experiments to have laxative, antibacterial, hemostatic, choleretic, ameliorating renal insufficiency and anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects. Therefore, rhubarb is widely used in clinical practice. However, when seeing the great clinical effects of rhubarb, it is important to understand the toxic side effects of rhubarb in order to make the best use of this ancient Chinese medicine. It can cause nausea, vomiting, dizziness, abdominal distension, abdominal pain, diarrhea and other symptoms. Although it is a good laxative, it can cause secondary constipation, which is due to the fact that rhubarb contains both laxative ingredients (such as combined anthraquinone) and antidiarrheal ingredients (such as tannin), which sometimes not only does not cause laxative reactions after taking small doses, but also has an astringent effect, which can cause secondary constipation after stopping the medicine. Long-term reliance on the laxative effect of rhubarb to detoxify the body can also affect the absorption of certain beneficial substances, resulting in the adverse consequences of anemia. Rhubarb can also suppress the body’s autoimmunity, and large doses can lower the thymus and spleen indices, avoiding the damage caused by an overpowering immune response to the body by inhibiting it. In addition, long-term use of anthraquinones can lead to a form of colonic melanosis (also known as colonic melanosis), which is often seen with excessive or abusive use of anthraquinone-based laxatives (e.g., Boswellia bark, senna, aloe, rhubarb, and laxative rhubarb bark). Colonoscopy shows network-like changes in the mucosa from transverse colon to rectum, with dense yellow-brown pigmentation on the mucosal surface; pathological examination shows a large number of lymphocytes and macrophages containing pigment granules in the mucosal tissue. Meanwhile, rhubarb contains a large amount of oxalic acid, which may cause side effects such as kidney and bladder stones when taken for a long time. Colonic melanosis is caused by the abuse of anthraquinone-based laxatives that cause necrosis of the submucosal ganglion cells of the colon due to long-term overstimulation. As a result, the colonic mucosa cannot produce normal peristalsis or group movement in response to the stimulation of substances in the intestine, which is clinically manifested by dry stools and long intervals between expulsions, and is prone to incomplete intestinal obstruction. Our department has treated many such cases. There are no good clinical reports on the conservative treatment of this disease in Western medicine, and most of them are treated by removing the diseased colon, and the Chinese medicine treatment is carried out from activating blood circulation and removing blood stasis, which has certain clinical efficacy. The “Great Physician’s Sincerity” also commented on the clinical treatment of similar laxative abuse, stating that “although it is said that the disease should be saved quickly, it is necessary not to be confused in the face of the matter. Only when the meaning of the examination and thought, not on the life, the rate of the rate of the self to show handsome fast, invited to shoot reputation, very unkind.” Therefore, rhubarb and other drugs that can cut the pass and seize the pass similar to the ability of the “general” can be used to save the emergency, but should not be treated as a “soldier”, only value its curative effect and ignore its side effects, long-term use in a patient, so as not to cause irreparable damage.