HERBAL MEDICINES - QUALITY AND SAFETY

Once upon a time there was a little girl who loved to stop and smell the roses - then she grew up and fell in love with lots of other plants aswell . . .

. . . and when she found they could help people get healthy . . . her life path was clear . . .

and then she went and wrote a guest blog - just for us, to make sure that when it comes to Herbal Medicines, you know the ins and outs . . .

so your health and wallets aren't compromised.

Oh and don't forget a few posts back we have our competition for 10 weeks of health coaching - closes real soon - so get in quick!

As always check us out on www.facebook.com/healthynationnz and at www.healthcoaching.co.nz

But for now, I'll leave you in the very capable, smelling like roses hands of Sara Hamer

Herbal medicines – quality and safety

By Sara Hamer, Dip Phyt (UK), MNZAMH, Medical Herbalist

herbalists@marchingcubes.com, www.herbalists.co.nz

Herbal medicines are not like pharmaceutical drugs in a number of ways.  Drugs tend to be single chemicals created in a lab.  They are regulated by strict legislation. So if you buy paracetamol, for example, from the chemist, you know it is the same as paracetamol you might buy from a supermarket, or get from a hospital.  If the box says “500mg paracetamol”, you know that is what you are getting.

However, herbal medicines are made from plants, which consist of hundreds, if not thousands of chemicals that work together to create its unique medicinal properties.  Plants are living things, and their chemistry is affected by things such as weather patterns, the environment they are grown in, the time of year they are harvested, how they are harvested, prepared and stored. Legislation around herbal medicines is far less stringent than that for drugs.

In order for a herbal medicine to be effective, it needs to be made from the right plant, from the correct part of the plant, and harvested and prepared with care.  Unfortunately, either deliberately or not, many herbal medicines sold in shops are not.  In some cases, the medicine is adulterated to make it seem like the real thing, when it is actually a cheap alternative.

The best way to identify a plant is by its botanical features, especially the flowers, but also the shape of its leaves, roots, stems and so on.  But if you buy a herbal tea, tablet or liquid preparation, you won’t be able to see its botanical features.  Many herbs also have characteristic tastes and smells that help identify it, although these may be obscured by how the plant is prepared – if it is in a capsule, for example, you won’t be able to taste it.

Producing good quality plants for herbal medicines can be difficult and expensive.  A good harvest is not guaranteed – Australian growers, for example, have had major problems over the last several years due to droughts and floods.  Producing the right plant part can also be difficult – for Echinacea, the root is the best part to use medicinally, but it takes 2 years to mature, and each plant can only be harvested once, because taking the root kills the plant. So many producers use the tops, which can re-grow 3 times a year.  But the tops are far less effective than the root, and can cause allergic reactions in some people.

When herbal medicine producers buy dried plant material from growers (or their agents), there are a number of ways they can check the identity and quality of the plants.  The first way is by tasting and smelling, and by looking at microscopic features in the dried plant that help to confirm it is the correct plant.  The second way is with chemical tests to check for the presence of chemicals that should be present in the plant.  Some of these tests are quite general, and show whether particular chemical groups are present, such as bioflavanoids or alkaloids.  Others are more sophisticated tests that look at specific chemical profiles that are unique to the plant.

If a manufacturer only uses the more basic tests, a supplier can provide very cheap plant material, with cheap additives, and pass it off as a good quality, expensive herb.  Examples include poor quality Ginkgo or Hawthorn with rutin added (rutin is a biolavonoid found in many plants – it has nutritional value, but does not give the medicinal properties that Ginkgo or Hawthorn have).  If the manufacturer had used those plants to make Ginkgo and Hawthorn preparations, the preparations would have been useless.

Adulterations can also be dangerous.  In the 1990s, there was a well-publicised case where a clinic had remedies made up that should have contained a plant called Stephania tetandra, a Chinese herb known to be safe.  However, the plant they got was a toxic plant called Aristolochia.  It caused kidney damage in some of the people who took the remedy.  Substitution of Stephania by Aristolochia is so common, both plants are now banned in Europe.

Sometimes the plant may be substituted for a different species of the same genus, because it is cheaper and easier to grow, or because the seeds have been mis-identified.  A survey a few years ago on Black Cohosh products in the US revealed that around 30% of the products labeled as Black Cohosh (Cimicifuga racemosa) were not that plant.  Some of them were a different species of Cimicifuga that can cause liver problems in some people.  Some preparations claiming to be goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis) have been found to be completely different plants, with yellow dye added, to make it look like goldenseal.  Genuine goldenseal is very endangered in the wild, and it is difficult to cultivate.

Many herbal products are very good, as the manufacturers source their raw materials carefully, and check every batch with sophisticated chemical tests to ensure they are the correct plant. But how can you be sure that the herbal medicine you are using is good quality?

·         Avoid very cheap herbal remedies – they are likely to be either the wrong plant, poorly prepared, or in too low amounts to be effective.

·         Check that the label gives you the full botanical name of the plant and not just the common name.

·         Check that the manufacturer’s contact details are on the packaging, so you can contact them if you have questions or concerns.

·         Avoid herbal remedies that are stored in clear packaging, or that have been kept in sunlight or heat.  Even very good herbal preparations deteriorate quickly if exposed to light or heat. Dried herbs should still retain colours, smells and tastes characteristic of that plant – if they lose those qualities, they are useless.

·         Check that the manufacturer is Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) certified.  This ensures the medicines are subject to the same kinds of quality controls that pharmaceutical drugs are.  It guarantees the herb is correctly identified and the correct part is used.  It ensures each batch is as consistent as possible, and ensures traceability for every step in manufacture, from sourcing raw materials to distribution. GMP certification is currently voluntary for New Zealand natural health product manufacturers.

·         A medical herbalist, such as myself, supplies only GMP certified products, so can guarantee the herbal medicine is the correct plant and good quality.  My suppliers also ensure that the plants they use are organically grown or spray-free, and are ethically and sustainably produced and harvested. A consultation with a medical herbalist means you can get a herbal treatment plan tailored exactly to your needs.