Safety of medicinal plants

The last decade has witnessed a great revival of interest in the use of herbal medicines both in the developed as well as developing countries. Almost 50% of the medicines we use today are derived straight from plants and 25% of the prescription drugs have their genesis of tropical plants*. According to WHO, 80% of the world population rely chiefly on plant based traditional medicines specially for their primary health care needs. The common belief based on tradition, that medicinal plants being "natural" or near to nature are always safe, is not held to be true lately. The advancement of technology has enabled the scientists to detect minute amounts of carcinogenic and toxic chemicals in these herbs and recognize or evaluate potentially hazardous effects of some of the herbs used in traditional medicines since centuries. This article aims to highlight the side effects and adverse reactions/ interactions of few most commonly used herbs considered to be safe since centuries with an advise to the physicians and pharmacists to consider the health hazards associated with the use of such drugs while taking the history of the patients.