Common phyto-remedies used against cardiovascular diseases and their potential to induce adverse events in cardiovascular patients

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) remain the leading cause of death globally. In addition to conventional medications, a plethora of herbal products continue to offer therapeutic alternatives to patients to assuage suffering. Nonetheless, concomitant administration of herbs and conventional medicine are not always safe which could mimic, oppose or magnify the effect of the latter leading to serious herb-drug interactions, most of which escape pharmacovigilance. The paucity of relevant information to clinicians in relation to herb-drug interactions, the inadequacy of evidence-based knowledge coupled with the lack of mechanistic facts poses a momentous threat to meet desired therapeutic outcomes in CVD patients. In this endeavor, key scientific databases have been explored to review common herbal products that might interfere clinically with conventional drugs used for CVDs and related complications. Ten common medicinal plants have been included and representative case reports whereby herbal products are thought to be inducers of adverse events are also discussed. It is anticipated that the present review will be a pinnacle of evidence and hence serve as an up-to-date fundamental repertoire of recent scientific findings to promote better understanding of adverse herb-drug events amongst clinicians and enhance rapport between clinicians and patients for subsequent counseling. Indeed, acknowledging the risks attributed to herb-drug interactions is fundamental in the management of CVDs and related implications which should not be underestimated or considered as trivial by both health-care professionals and herbal consumers.