ReviewHerb-drug interactions
Section snippets
Source and extent of review
Sources for this review include MEDLINE 1966–98 (searched under MeSH terms “drug interactions” combined with “herbal medicine”, “traditional medicine”, “Chinese traditional medicine”, “African traditional medicine”, “Ayurvedic medicine”, “Oriental traditional medicine”, “Unani medicine”, and “Arabic medicine”); EMBASE 1994–99 (searched under the same terms); reference dredging; and my own files on the subject.
Many reports of herb-induced interactions lack crucial documentation on temporal
Misidentification, adulteration, and contamination
Labelling of herbal products may not accurately reflect their contents, and adverse events or interactions attributed to specific herbs may actually be due to misidentified plants, pharmaceutical drugs, or heavy metals.56 For example, a “Siberian ginseng” (Eleutherococcus senticosus product implicated in a case of neonatal androgenisation57 was found on analysis to be an unrelated species, Chinese silk vine (Periploca sepium).58 In Hong Kong, encephalopathy and neuropathy associated with a
Counselling of patients about herb-drug interactions
Use of herbal and dietary supplements is extremely common: in one US survey of adults who regularly take prescription medication, 18·4% reported the concurrent use of at least one herbal product or high-dose vitamin (and 61·5% of those who used unconventional therapies did not disclose such use to their physicians).63 A survey of 515 users of herbal remedies in the UK found that 26% would consult their general practitioner for a serious adverse drug reaction associated with a conventional
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