Safety and Toxicity of Botanical Medicines: A...

Safety and Toxicity of Botanical Medicines: A critical Appraisal

Author Name : Narinder Kumar, Mohd Ashaq

ABSTRACT

The use of herbal supplements and medicinal products has increased tremendously over the past three decades with at least 80% of people relying on them for some part of primary healthcare globally. Although therapies involving these agents and have shown promising potential with the efficacy of a good number of herbal products established and many of them remain unverified. The consequence of this is an inadequate knowledge of their mode of action, potential adverse reactions, contraindications, and interactions with existing orthodox pharmaceuticals and functional foods to promote both safe and rational use of these agents. Since safety continues to be a foremost issue with the use of botanical medicine, and it becomes imperative, therefore, that relevant regulatory authorities put in place appropriate measures to protect public health by ensuring that all herbal medicines are safe and of suitable quality.

 Herbal drugs are playing an important role in health care programmes particularly in developing countries.This is because of the fact they are being easily available and have low cost. Generally,there is belief that herbal drugs are always toxicity free as they are “natural" globally. The mere fact that a product is "natural" may not signify that the product is safe. Although limited evidence suggests that adverse effects associated with the use of herbal drugs are less likely to occur than with conventional drugs, theydo occur and only affecting a small number of people.

Recent evidence suggests that some of the herbs considered to be safe over the last many decades and have proven to be associated with health hazards. Herbal remedies can act either as agonists or antagonists that potentiate some drug therapies. Therefore, an understanding of conventional drugs is an essential prerequisite for effective herbal therapeutics.The advancement of technology has enabled the scientists to detect minute amounts of carcinogenic and toxic chemicals in these herbs and recognize or evaluate potentially hazardous effects of some of the drugs.

Keywords:  Herbal medicines, Toxicity, Therapy, Botanicals