Medicinal & Aromatic Plants
Open Access

Can the Usage of Herbal Medications Cause Liver Damage?

San Arrie^{* *}Correspondence: San Arrie, Department of Natural Medicine, University of Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal, Email:

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Description

Sixty-five different regularly used herbs, herbal medications, and herbal supplements, as well as 111 different Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) herbs or herbal mixes, have been found causative for liver illness, with rates of causation proof that were hardly conclusive. In the field of herbal hepatotoxicity, encouraging steps include the introduction of analytical methods for identifying cases of intrinsic hepatotoxicity caused by pyrrolizidine alkaloids, as well as omics technologies such as genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and assessing circulating micro-RNA in the serum of some patients with intrinsic hepatotoxicity. It needs to be seen whether these new technologies can detect atypical HILI patients. Herbal medicine should be generally marketed as herbal medications under strict regulatory monitoring, similar to regulatory authorized chemical drugs, exhibiting a favourable risk/benefit profile through evidence-based clinical studies and high herbal drug quality.

As early as 3000 BC, and therefore far before recorded literature, ancient Chinese and Egyptian papyruses detail the medical use of herbs for various diseases. Beginning around that time, herbal traditional medicine from Mesopotamia, Egypt, and India influenced Byzantine, Greek, Latin, and Indian herbal medicine, establishing Ayurvedic principles in India and developing traditional occidental herbal medicine, which later became popular in many European and other Western countries. Herbs were also employed in healing rituals by indigenous societies in Africa, North America, the Middle and South Americas, Australia, and the South Pacific islands (IARC Monographs, 2002). Herbal Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) arose in other regions of the world and developed traditional Oriental herbal medicine in Japan (IARC Monographs, 2002), known as Kampo medicine, and other Asian nations such as Korea with its herbal traditional Korean medicine. TCM, which originated in China, and Ayurveda, which originated in India, are two of the most ancient but surviving herbal medical systems that still exist and have spread over the world. Despite the fact that most other old herbal medicine cultures have gone or are relegated to local usage without the possibility of globalization, many countries employ herbal remedies.

The global usage of medical plants has expanded in recent years, although regulatory oversight varies by country due to a lack of harmonization. According to a UN research from 2000, the global market for herbal medicines based on traditional knowledge is expected to be around US$60,000 million per year (WHO, 2002). (UN, 2000). According to American Botanical Council data, total projected herb retail sales in all channels in the United States increased from $4230 million in 2000 to$6032 million in 2013, representing a 42.6 percent overall and a 3.3 percent yearly increase. Some findings contrast with the rising usage of complementary and alternative Medicine (CAM), with an estimated $27 billion spent by CAM customers in the United States in 1997 and $33.9 billion in 2007, or a 25.5 percent increase. Figures included all CAM-related out-of-pocket expenditures in the United States in 2007 on visits to CAM practitioners and purchases of CAM products, classes, and materials, with $14.5 billion spent on non-vitamin, non-mineral, and natural products; the widespread use of herbal medicine has a high economic power in our society, with special financial benefits for herb producers, providers, and healers. Given this massive economic effect and the consequent expenditures, the question is whether these high expenses as a burden on consumers and society are justified. Furthermore, due to concerns about efficacy, safety (NIH, 2014a), and adverse effects such as liver impairment, herbal therapy is coming under examination.