Herbal medicines are being used with greater frequency by practitioners of natural medicine in the United States. Many categories of herbs are used, primarily angiotensin antagonists, nonspecific nephroprotective, and immunomodulating/adaptogenic herbs. The most common herbs in each category are discussed both from a historical and scientific perspective. For the first time, a case series of th...

Study selection Studies were selected if they were randomised controlled trials comparing 1 herbal treatment with a placebo or another active drug in patients with osteoarthritis. Studies focusing on back pain, osteoarthritic conditions of the spine, or on parenterally applied herbal preparations were excluded, as were studies that lacked essential methodological detail such as dosage, baseline...

The study was conducted on Vencobb broiler chicks to ascertain the antistress affects of Zist, Zeetress and a combination of Amla and Turmeric during summer, rainy and winter seasons and thereby the haematological changes of birds revealed that during all the three seasons a marked improvement in Haemoglobin was encountered in all the three groups where herbal preparations were supplemented. A ...

Conventional drugs treat diabetes by improving insulin sensitivity, increasing insulin production and/or decreasing the amount of glucose in blood. Several herbal preparations are used to treat diabetes, but their reported hypoglycemic effects are complex or even paradoxical in some cases. This article reviews recent findings about some of the most popular hypoglycemic herbs, such as ginseng, b...

Cosmetology, the science of alteration of appearance, has been practiced since primordial times. In India, the concept of using herbs for beautification finds its origin in traditional medicine literature like Ayurveda. The cosmetic preparations were used for the purpose of worship and sensual enjoyment. Moreover, since centuries, the herbal extracts, as a whole or part thereof, have been used ...

Basic information on seniors' use of supplements is lacking. In this study, a convenience sample of community-living older adults (n = 128) was recruited from 10 sites to determine the prevalence, frequency, duration and type of supplement use. Use information, demographics and medical/nutritional history were collected with an interview-administered questionnaire. Supplement use included both ...

THERE IS ENORMOUS PUBLIC ENthusiasm for herbal medications. Two recent surveys have found widespread use among the presurgical population. Morbidity and mortality associated with herbal medications may be more likely in the perioperative period because of the polypharmacy and physiological alterations that occur. Such complications include myocardial infarction, stroke, bleeding, inadequate ora...

Adulteration of allegedly "natural herbal medicines" with undeclared synthetic drugs is a common and dangerous phenomenon of alternative medicine. The purpose of the study was to develop a procedure for detection of most common synthetic adulterants in herbal remedies, using high-pressure liquid chromatography-electrospray tandem mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS-MS). Eighty drugs belonging to vario...

Herbal antimalarials still remain an alternative to our traditional communities who can not afford orthodox antimalarials. This study was aimed at investigating the microbial quality of six herbal antimalarials using standard microbiological methods. Of the six preparations analyzed, "schnapps", palm wine and water were the media of preparation; the water base preparations recorded higher micro...