Although many scholars have written articles to disclose the side effects of herbal medicines, the attention is often limited to the academic community. Medical professionals are often busy with their daily work and rarely have the interest to write scientific articles, coupled with the long history of Chinese herbal medicine in China and the common use of herbal medicine in the treatment of diseases. Many patients usually take it for granted that herbal medicines are of natural origin and free from contamination, and therefore unilaterally recognize their effectiveness and safety, while ignoring their existence or potential toxicity. The dangers are even more pathetic because most patients do not use the medicine under the guidance of a regular and qualified herbalist. Recently, we have received several cases of liver cancer patients who took folk herbal medicines that led to rapid deterioration of liver function. The herbs reported in the literature that have received the most attention related to the potential liver toxicity of herbal medicines are wild lily, millipede, asparagus, hogwort genus, Paraguayan tea, ephedra, jinbao, dogbane, comfrey family, and the compound preparation Xiao Chai Hu Tang. The hepatotoxicity of its main constituent, pyrrolizidine alkaloids, can be induced in animal experiments in a dose-dependent manner and can also lead to the classic hepatic sinusoidal obstruction syndrome (SOS), which is characterized by portal hypertension and non-cirrhotic ascites with clinical manifestations of abdominal pain, ascites, hepatomegaly and elevated transaminases and often leads to liver failure. Among them, the clinical manifestations of patients with goldenseal and dahlia poisoning are closer to hypersensitivity reactions, not related to dose size, and often present with obstructive jaundice. Staphylinia spp., Aristolochia spp., Patagonia spp., Boswellia bark, and Senna spp. can also cause DILI, and after discontinuing the drug, the patient’s DILI symptoms and biochemical tests can return to normal. In addition, there are also reports of liver damage caused by herbs such as Bryony, Peony bark, He Shou Wu, Glycyrrhiza glabra, Atractylodes macrocephala, and Huang Yao Zi. The clinicopathological manifestations of DILI caused by herbs can cover almost all known hepatic pathological changes. Patients with mild symptoms may present with only a transient increase in transaminases, but they may also develop acute and chronic hepatitis, hepatic steatosis, cholestasis, hepatic banding or diffuse necrosis, hepatic fibrosis or sclerosis, hepatic veno-occlusive disease (now called hepatic sinusoidal obstruction syndrome), and in severe cases, even acute liver failure requiring liver transplantation. Due to the common misconception that herbs are harmless and natural plants are not poisonous, irregularities in the collection, processing and preparation of herbs can also lead to poisoning incidents. Therefore, patients with liver cancer should take herbal preparations according to medical advice, avoid exceeding the prescribed dose and taking them for a long time, do not mistakenly take external drugs internally, and take folk remedies with caution and under the guidance of doctors who are qualified in regular Chinese medicine and familiar with tumor treatment to prevent poisoning.