The Quality of Commercially Available Herbal Products

Abstract

Herbal products are believed to be safe as they are naturally occurring, however, this is a misconception. Currently, there are many herbal products which are not manufactured under the Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) guidelines and hence the quality of the product is not controlled. Quality can be assessed by evaluation of data on levels of either active constituent(s) or chemical markers indicative of origin of plant material. Assessment of published data on levels of quality of herbal medicinal products revealed that only a percentage of the total number of products investigated were found to contain the levels of markers as stated on the label, and others had widely varying levels of constituents. Thus few products complied with acceptable quality control standards. Herbal products are increasingly self-prescribed for the treatment of minor ailments. Patients relying on herbal products for therapeutic effects may expose themselves to either low doses of active constituents causing insufficient effects or alternatively take higher levels than expected, with the increased risk of toxicity or adverse effects, or be affected by the inadvertent inclusion of unexpected components with associated potential health risks.

Mixtures research at NIEHS: An evolving program

“…In effect, although specifications for purported active ingredients may be provided by bodies such as the US Pharmacopeia, compliance to these specifications is voluntary. Therefore, products on the marketplace often display a wide range of constituent concentrations that often differ significantly from label claims (Draves and Walker 2003; Edwards and Draper 2003; Fransen et al 2010; Harkey et al 2001; Ruparel and Lockwood 2011). This lack of consistency in content found in products available on the marketplace presents a considerable challenge in test article selection for NTP studies with herbal products.…”

To Determined Using of Herbal Product in Elderly People

“…The current perception of plant products, that "there'll be no problem because it's natural", may well have influenced the preference for their use. 36 Another frequently chosen plant product is black cumin oil. This plant has great religious significance in Muslim societies, and Turkey is a predominantly Muslim societ.…”

Drug safety aspects of herbal medicinal products

“…It is suggested that the numerous papers alleging 'unrecognized' safety for herbals [2,8,12,[17][18][19]20] should be viewed in the context of type and regulation of the products.…”

“…While some patients ask for herbal preparations as an alternative or complement (co-use, administration) to chemically defined substances, other patients use them as they are easy to access, especially in developing countries [3,[5][6][7]. Herbal medicines are repeatedly stated to be natu-1 3 ral and therefore safe when compared to chemical medicines [1, [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. It is common knowledge that only a minor percentage of adverse drug reactions (ADR) to medicinal products is reported to companies or authorities with estimated less than 10 % for prescription (chemical) medicines [4,9].…”