Introduction The continued use of herbal medicine in the United States and among members of Kaiser Permanente (KP) makes an updated review of this topic timely and important. Many pharmacies at KP facilities in Southern California now carry traditional herbal preparations. These “dietary supplements” are over-the-counter therapy that is not routinely screened for drug interaction by the pharmac...

Since the U.S. Congress passed the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) in 1994, use of herbal products has been growing rapidly worldwide. To ensure consumer health protection, the quality and safety of herbal plants, particularly those used for dietary supplement preparations, must be determined. To date, toxicological data on the identification of genotoxic and tumorigenic ing...

The aim of this study is to evaluate Chinese herbs' efficacy on adhesive properties of Escherichia coli (E. coli). The effects of Chinese herbal solution on the hemagglutination and adhesion by E. coli strain were studied. E. coli C16 was isolated from a patient with urinary tract infection. The MIC value of herbal solution for the E. coli C16 was 0.1g/ml. The MBC value was 0.2g/ml. The effects...

Warfarin is a common anticoagulant agent for cardiovascular diseases, and it is known to interact with several foods and drugs. Several studies report an interaction between warfarin and herbal medicines; however, the influence of herbal medicines on the international normalized ratio (INR) is still controversial. We investigated the influence of herbal formulas on INR of patients taking warfar...

Traditional herbal medicine plays a significant role in the treatment of epilepsy. Though herbal medicine is widely used in antiepileptic treatment, there is a lack of robust evidence for efficacy and toxicity of most herbs. Besides, the herbal medicine should be subject to evidence-based scrutiny. In this context, we present a review to introduce the effects of herbal medicine on epilepsy. How...

BACKGROUND Anxiety disorders are the most prevalent mental health condition in Australia. In addition, there are many people who experience problematic anxiety symptoms who do not receive an anxiety disorder diagnosis but require treatment. As herbal medicine use is popular in Australia, and little is known about how adults experiencing anxiety are using these medicines, this study aimed to ide...

The use of herbal remedies by African farmers in the treatment of livestock diseases was investigated using a range of methods, including group interviews, structured interviews, semi-structured interviews and participant observation. The study was concerned mainly with the 'why' and 'how' of herbal remedy use among African livestock holders farming on communally-owned land in central Eastern C...

Sheng-Mai-San is a multi-component traditional Chinese herbal preparation. Due to the fact granulated additives, such as starch, carboxymethyl cellulose, lactose and raw herbal powder may alter the content of the bioactive markers in the herbal products, a developed ultra-high performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS) method was used to measure the herbal biomarke...

the prevalence of allergic diseases is high in the general population, and the high prevalence of these diseases not only leads to considerable mortality and morbidity, but also has economic importance. in this study 400 patients were evaluated in tehran and karaj cities during 1995-1998. skin prick test with stan¬dard extracts was done in patients in comparison with controls. selection of ex¬t...

BACKGROUND Infertility is a public health problem associated with devastating psychosocial consequences. In countries where infertility care is difficult to access, women turn to herbal medicines to achieve parenthood. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence and factors associated with herbal medicine use by women attending the infertility clinic. METHODS This was a cross-sectio...