Anything to declare? Possible risks for patients' health resulting from undeclared plants in herbal supplements

摘要

Problems due to poor quality of herbal products continue to be a major international problem. Of particular concern is the deliberate or accidental addition of other plant species or synthetic drugs leading to adverse reactions (AR). As a result, labelling of herbal products may sometimes not accurately reflect their contents, leading to adverse events or interactions attributed to specific herbs, when in fact they are actually due to misidentified plants, mislabelling and/or adulteration. Since producers may include or omit safety information on product labels at their own discretion, labels themselves may lack clinically pertinent information. In this frame, the interpretation of specific ARs to herbal products might also be difficult .