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Important Remarks:

- One should rely on phyto-medicine with recent proven efficacy (after renewed clinical studies).

- One should rely on pure herbals. This is because there have been some unusual toxicities
reported with commercial herbal products due to:

• Contamination with poisonous plants.
• Foreign toxic substances (not of plant origin).
• Purposeful adulteration with synthetic drugs by the addition of analgesics,

antiinflammatory (cortisones, etc..), tranquillizers, etc… to add more action to the herbal.

- One must keep in mind dose levels and duration of use (acute or delayed toxicities may
develop).

- Most natural products should be discontinued during pregnancy or lactation and not for young
children.

- Excessive combination of large number of herbals can be a potential problem because each
plant contains numerous active components. Most recent researches with herbal preparations
(uni-, bi-, multi-component) and OTC medications has shown that more than two or three
ingredients in one product is not always correct (i.e. efficacy, safety, toxicity, etc…)

- Excessive dosages of phytomedicine should be avoided, because many herbs are considered
mild, the tendency is to use them for prolonged periods of time or to use too much at one time
(i.e. duration of use may lead to acute or delayed toxicity. This may be due to cumulative,
synergistic effects, idiosyncrasy, etc…).

- Generally, natural products should not be used for serious health conditions (cardiac, liver
diseases, diabetes mellitus, cancer, AIDS, viral and bacterial infections, etc…) without the advice
and supervision of a qualified health practitioner. Most natural products are intended to treat
mild, short-term disorders (e.g. headache, insomnia, dyspepsia, constipation, mechanical
diarrhea, mild intestinal spasm, etc..).

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