Label-free pharmacological profiling based on dynamic mass redistribution for characterization and authentication of hazardous natural products.

•Dynamic mass redistribution (DMR) profiling was proposed to characterize toxic herbs.•Qualitative DMR profiling has obvious advantages over the classic method.•Quantitative DMR profiling is powerful in discovery of toxic marker compounds.•The proposed method is high-throughput, cost-saving and easily operated.•DMR profiling is universal for discovery of most receptor-targeted toxicants.