Adverse Effects Of Herbal Drugs 2

Although lots of books have been published about herbal therapy, a comprehensive overview of the adverse effects of botanical medicines is not available. Yet such an overview is badly needed, because of the enormous rise in the use of herbal remedies. The book series will provide approximately 150 monographs on herbal remedies and plant-derived drugs. Each monograph will provide introductory information on Botany, Chemistry, Pharmacology and Uses, followed by an Adverse Reaction Profile subdivided according to organ and function. The World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe (Copenhagen) has decided to support the book in the form of an acknowledgement that it has been preparedin cooperation with this Office.

Although lots of books have been published about herbal therapy, a comprehensive overview of the adverse effects of botanical medicines is not available. Yet such an overview is badly needed, because of the enormous rise in the use of herbal remedies. The book series will provide approximately 150 monographs on herbal remedies and plant-derived drugs. Each monograph will provide introductory information on Botany, Chemistry, Pharmacology and Uses, followed by an Adverse Reaction Profile subdivided according to organ and function. The World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe (Copenhagen) has decided to support the book in the form of an acknowledgement that it has been preparedin cooperation with this Office.

This book is the first volume of a series on the adverse effects of herbal drugs. We begin this series not because we are opposed to phytotherapy, or because we want to share our ammunition with adversaries of herbal drug treatments. We realize that several remedies of natural origin (e. g. , senna, ipecac) have retained a prominent place in the conventional drug armamentarium. We also recognize that the general public appreciates so-called mildly acting herbs for self-medication purposes. We acknowledge that even when such herbs have no pronounced pharmacological acti vity, their psychosocial effect remains an asset that should not be ignored. Moreover, we do not hold the often heard opinion that traditional remedies are nothing but a collection of worthless relics from the remote past which cannot possibly be relevant for modem medicine. We consider this an erroneous assumption thas has been refuted repeatedly by experimental research on traditional botanicals. The encouraging results with the herbal remedy feverfew as a prophylactic antimigraine agent is a recent illustration that botanical medicine can still provide exciting the rapeutic discoveries. For these reasons it is not our intention to place botanical remedies indiscriminately in an unfavorable light. We do not seek to dam up the "green" wave that is sweeping over our society. We do consider it important, however, that this wave be appropria tely chanelled, and with this basic attitude we have assumed edi torial responsibility.

This book series gives a comprehensive overview of the adverse effects of botanical medicines. It provides introductory information on Botany, Chemistry, Pharmacology and Uses, followed by an Adverse Reaction Profile subdivided according to organ and function. The third contribution to the series gives important information about eighteen specific medicinal herbs and important plant constituents. The herbs and constituents have been selected for several reasons, such as a prominent place in phytotherapy, clinical expectations about therapeutic potential and recent concern about a serious adverse reaction. The World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe (Copenhagen) has supported the book in the form of an acknowledgement that has been prepared by this Office.

The global popularity of herbal supplements and the promise they hold in treating various disease states has caused an unprecedented interest in understanding the molecular basis of the biological activity of traditional remedies. Herbal Medicine: Biomolecular and Clinical Aspects focuses on presenting current scientific evidence of biomolecular ef

"This book summarizes the adverse effects of a large range of herbal medicines and the active ingredients that they contain. It includes extensive lists of the families of plants that are used as herbal medicines, including the Latin names of genera and species as well as the common names of individual plants. The material is drawn from the 15th edition of the internationally renowned encyclopedia, Meyler's Side Effects of Drugs: The Encyclopedia of Adverse Drug Reactions and Interactions, and the latest volumes in the companion series, Side Effects of Drugs Annuals."--BOOK JACKET.

This volume of the IARC Monographs provides an assessment of the carcinogenicity of 14 drugs and herbal products. The IARC Monographs Working Group relied on epidemiological studies to evaluate the carcinogenic hazard to humans exposed to the drugs digoxin (widely prescribed for the treatment of chronic heart failure), pioglitazone (used for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus), and hydrochlorothiazide (used to treat hypertension). Other agents evaluated included the drugs primidone, sulfasalazine, pentosan polysulfate sodium, and triamterene, and five herbal products (or their components): Aloe vera whole leaf extract, goldenseal root powder, Ginkgo biloba leaf extract, kava extract, and pulegone. In view of the limited agent-specific information available from epidemiological studies, assessments of these agents relied mainly on carcinogenicity bioassays to reach conclusions as to the carcinogenic hazard to exposed humans.