Acu-Care Health Centers

Are herbal medicines safe?

Most herbal medicines are safe. There are certain situations, however, in which specific herbs may not be safe, for example when a woman is pregnant or breast feeding, or when someone has high blood pressure. The most important thing to remember is that if you want to use herbal medicines it is always safest to be under the care of a qualified herbalist.

Herbs have a medicinal effect, but the effect is usually not nearly as strong as that of pharmaceutical drugs. This is because prescription drugs have been synthesized in a laboratory—taking the "active ingredient" found in some other form, usually plant based, and then concentrating the ingredient into a pill. Herbs usually are gentler because they are still in a more natural state, for example, roots, stems, bark, seed, etc. Even after they have been processed, the most active ingredients have not been separated from the other constituent parts.

There has been genuine concern lately about some of the Chinese herbal products that are imported from China as patent medicines, the equivalent of over the counter products sold in the U.S. and elsewhere. These patent medicines are sold in tablets, pills and liquids and are widely available in herbal stores around the country. However, many patent medicines manufactured in Asian countries contain toxic ingredients such as heavy metals as well as prescription drugs or unapproved ingredients that may or may not be declared on the label. Some of these have caused documented problems in this country.

Of 260 Asian patent medicines collected from California retail herbal stores 14 had labels that declared pharmaceutical ingredients. When the remaining were tested another 17 products contained undeclared pharmaceuticals, the most common being ephedrine, chlorophenirimine, methyltestosterone and phenacetin.

Of the 260 products collected, approximately 32% were adulterated by the presence of undeclared pharmaceuticals and/or heavy metals, and 23 of these products had more than one adulterant.

It is, therefore, safest to buy Chinese herbal medicine which has been manufactured in the United States or other countries where there are strict standards for testing and production.

If you are interested in purchasing herbal products, visit our health products section under Detoxification. We offer a full line of herbal products that are developed by U.S. based companies. The herbs used pass government inspection and are tested by independent laboratories for pesticides, sulfite, bacteria or other contamination and have strict standards for purity and potency. If you have specific questions about any herbal products, please give us a call.