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Elsevier

The Essential Guide to Herbal Safety

  • 1st Edition - December 23, 2004
  • Latest edition
  • Authors: Simon Y Mills, Kerry Bone
  • Language: English

Winner of American Botanical Council's 2005 James A. Duke Botanical Literature Award, the Essential Guide to Herbal Safety offers a balanced and objective perspective on the… Read more

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Description

Winner of American Botanical Council's 2005 James A. Duke Botanical Literature Award, the Essential Guide to Herbal Safety offers a balanced and objective perspective on the principles of herbal medicine safety as well as the complex challenges relating to self-prescribed or professionally prescribed herbal medications and supplements. With contributions from leading international practitioners and authorities, it contains comprehensive reviews, in monograph format, of the published safety data for 125 common herbs. You'll also find coverage of issues of quality, interactions, adverse reactions, toxicity, allergy, contact sensitivity, and idiosyncratic reactions.

Key features

  • Provides the most current information on safety issues in herbal medicine.
  • Presents authoritative and credible safety information from two experienced herbal practitioners.
  • Combines theoretical chapters with 125 well-researched monographs, making it the most thorough and comprehensive text on the market for herbal safety in practice.
  • Provides clear information using the most current evidence-based reviews, covering factors that influence herb safety, including the negative placebo effects (nocebo), various types of unpredictable effects, the basis for interactions between herbs and drugs, and quality issues.
  • Uses an established grading system for assessing safety in pregnancy and lactation that is realistic and appropriate to herb use.
  • Thoroughly critiques the dominant misinformation in the media and medical journals on herb safety issues.
  • Contains 83 documented case studies on hepatoxicity and the effects in relation to kava. Kava safety is a hot topic.
  • Includes two useful appendices detailing herbal references for pregnancy and lactation considerations.

Table of contents

Part 1 Safety issues

1. Introduction: what is herb safety?
Simon Mills

2. Adverse effects of herbal remedies – the case to answer
Dr Debbie Shaw

3. The adverse placebo effect and transient treatment reactions
Simon Mills

4. Idiosyncratic drug reactions
Simon Mills

5. Human-plant interactions
Simon Mills

6. Adverse herb-drug interactions (AHDI)
Kerry Bone, Simon Mills and Michelle Morgan and Berris Burgoyne

7. Safety considerations during pregnancy and lactation
Kerry Bone

8. The impact of quality issues on the safety of herbal products
Kerry Bone

9. Safety concerns involving Chinese herbal medicine
Trina Ward

10. Allergic reactions to herbal medicines
Professor Stephen Myers and Hans Wohlmuth

11. Pharmacovigilance of herbal medicines
Dr. Joanne Barnes

12. Kava: a risk-benefit assessment
Dr. Mathias Schmidt, Michelle Morgan, Kerry Bone, and Janice McMillan

Part 2 Safety Monographs

Appendix A: Herb Listing by Pregnancy and Lactation Categories
Appendix B: Pregnancy and Lactation Categories Listing by Herb

Review quotes

"As more people are using herbs, either prescribed or self-prescribed, it is useful to have this information in your office in an easily accessible format. I recommend it." Complementary Medicine, September / October 2005

Product details

  • Edition: 1
  • Latest edition
  • Published: December 23, 2004
  • Language: English

About the authors

SM

Simon Y Mills

Affiliations and expertise
Managing Director

KB

Kerry Bone

Affiliations and expertise
Head of Research and Development, MediHerb (Pty) Ltd, Warwick, Queensland; Principal, Australian College of Phytotherapy, Australia