BACKGROUND The popularity of non-conventional treatments, especially the consumption of herbs is showing an increasing tendency all over the world. The consumption of herbal medicines might cause several complications during perioperative care. METHODS The survey was conducted at the First Department of Surgery of Semmelweis University and focused on the demographics of patients consuming her...

Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) is a chronic digestive disorder, which is characterized by abdominal pain, bloating, diarrhea and constipation periods. The etiology is unknown. Based on the different mechanisms in the etiology, treatment focuses on controlling symptoms. Due to the longtime of syndrome, inadequacy of current treatments, financial burden for patients and pharmacologic effects, sev...

complementary and alternative medicine is popular among cancer patients worldwide. among these, herbal medicines have a substantial place in cancer treatment and palliation. cancer patients in the western world use complementary and alternative medicine in conjunction with conventional care. however, the situation in a developing country such as india that has some highest cancer rates worldwid...

This article provides an overview of the clinical evidence of interactions between herbal and conventional medicines. Herbs involved in drug interactions--or that have been evaluated in pharmacokinetic trials--are discussed in this review. While many of the interactions reported are of limited clinical significance and many herbal products (e.g. black cohosh, saw palmetto, echinacea, hawthorn a...

Herbal Medicines are a fast emerging trend in recent times, as they provide safer, effcective and economical treatment to patients. Azadirachta indica (neem) has been an integral part of health and oral care since times immemorial. It has shown to be an effective antimicrobial, antinflammatory and anticancer agent. In india it has been an indespensible part of oral care and is still a popular d...

herbal medicines include a range of pharmacologically active compounds: in some cases it is not well understood which ingredients are important for a therapeutic effect. the supporters of herbal medicine believe that isolated ingredients in the majority of cases have weaker clinical effects than whole plant extract, a claim that would obviously require proof in each case. generalizations about ...

BACKGROUND A large proportion of patients use herbal remedies with a potential to interact with prescribed drugs. Such interactions can be dangerous, particularly if the therapeutic window of the prescribed drug is small, as with warfarin. AIMS Our aim was to estimate the prevalence of the use of herbal medicines by patients taking warfarin (co-ingestion). DESIGN OF STUDY Postal questionnai...

Microscopic identification is the method most commonly used to authenticate Chinese herbal medicines. By means of various microscopic techniques, structural and cellular features of herbs are examined in order to determine their botanical origins and assess their qualities. This method is useful for identifying species from fragments or powders and for distinguishing species with similar morpho...

BACKGROUND There is widespread use of herbal medicines across the world and the need for regulatory measures to ensure their safety, efficacy and quality is therefore imperative. Conventional microbiological methods are used in carrying out quality control analysis of herbal medicines but these are often slow, may be less sensitive or specific and labour-intensive. In this study we investigated...

In the present review, the main objective was to report the incidence and causes of herbal medicines induced anticholinergic poisoning in Hong Kong during 1989-2012 and to emphasize the importance of pharmacovigilance, investigations and preventive measures. Relevant papers, official figures and unpublished data were obtained from Medline search, the Department of Health and the Drug and Poison...