OBJECTIVE To summarize and evaluate the efficacy and safety of herbal medicines used for the treatment of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in children. METHODS Thirteen electronic databases were searched from their inception to November 2016. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that assessed the efficacy of herbal medicines alone or in combination with other Traditional Chinese Medicine treatme...

BACKGROUND Proving the efficacy and corresponding mode of action of herbal supplements is a difficult challenge for evidence-based herbal therapy. A major hurdle is the complexity of herbal preparations, many of which combine multiple herbs, particularly when the combination is assumed to be vitally important to the effectiveness of the herbal therapy. This issue may be addressed through the us...

Herbal remedies, considered to be both safe and effective by most consumers, may interact with conventional drugs. Warfarin, a vitamin K antagonist originally derived from the sweet clover plant, has a narrow therapeutic window which can be monitored using prothrombin international normalized ratios (PT-INR). Many herbs can increase the risk for bleeding when combined with warfarin, either by a...

What is herbal therapy? Herbs are plants that contain ingredients with active therapeutic properties. These active ingredients may be present in the whole plant or only in a specific part. Other parts of the same plant, or other plants in the same genus may have no activity or may in fact be toxic. An herb may be used in various forms, including teas, granular extracts (Chinese medicine), fresh...

This review paper looks at all the herbal medicines and formulas in treating anxiety disorders. A thorough Pubmed and the Cochrane internet search was made for pharmacological and clinical evidence of herbal medicines with antianxiety action. Good evidence exists for the use of kava in the treatment of anxiety, while there is insufficient clinical evidence for the use of many other herbal medic...

The use of herbal therapy in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is increasing worldwide. The aim of this study was to review the literature on the efficacy of herbal therapy in IBD patients. Studies on herbal therapy for IBD published in Medline and Embase were reviewed, and response to treatment and remission rates were recorded. Although the number of the relevant clinical studies is relatively...

Stroke is one of the most important causes of mortality and morbidity in the world. Prevention and effective treatment of stroke is of the utmost importance. Cerebral ischemia causes disturbances in a variety of cellular and molecular mechanisms, including oxidative phosphorylation, membrane function, neurotransmitter release, and free radical generation. It has been years since tissue-type pla...