Administration (FDA), so there are multiple issues including adulterations, pharmaceutical additions, pesticides, and pathogenic microorganisms that might alter the safety and efficacy of the herbs that we pick up at our local organic grocery store.
According to Elvin-Lewis, the American population believes that it is sufficiently educated, whether through formal education or Internet resources, to self-prescribe herbal remedies and supplements. We believe that reading labels tells us the whole story because in many cases, it does. But with herbal remedies, Americans believe what they hear, see on television, and read--and this could be incredibly dangerous.
"Those we trust the most to help us are hamstrung," says Elvin-Lewis. "We talk about the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, but that could very well be the herbal remedies here in the United States."
She details many of the incredibly alarming issues in contaminants and adulterations that currently occur in herbal remedies in her chapter "Safety Issues Associated with Herbal Ingredients," in Advances in Food and Nutrition Research, Vol. 50 (2005).
In fact, there have been documented cases of clinical poisoning in North America from herbal or ethnic remedies that included mercury or lead. Additionally, it is possible to find unlabelled pharmaceuticals co-mingling with herbal remedies. The FDA issued warnings in 2003 and 2004 against some herbal
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Contact: Tony Fitzpatrick
tony_fitzpatrick@wustl.edu
314-935-5272
Washington University in St. Louis
8-May-2006