Herbal medicines lack safety warnings

A study has shown that herbal medicines lack sufficient safety warnings.

Researchers at the University of Leeds examined five commonly used herbal supplements to check if they supplied safety information required by new EU rules and found that most of them did not.

They investigated 63 supplements from the following five types: St John's wort, Asian ginseng, Echinacea, garlic and Gingko. Just three contained an acceptable level of information, 13 included an instruction sheet and 51 medicines contained nothing at all.

Several herbal products are classed as food, meaning they can be sold outside regulations. Additionally, old stock that was purchased before the new rules came into place can still be sold. Herbal medicines can interfere with prescription medicine, reducing effectiveness, and sometimes causing side effects.

"The public should be able to expect full disclosure of key safety information when they purchase herbal medicines over the counter," the authors write.

"This study has shown that, among five herbal products commonly purchased over the counter in the UK, most contained little or no information regarding what to check for in order to avoid harm before using the product."

They concluded: “Potential purchasers need to know, in both the short term and the long term, how to purchase herbal products which provide the information they need for the safe use of these products.