Toxicology and Clinical Pharmacology of Herbal Products

There has been a tremendous surge in interest in herbal products as medicines over the last ten years or so. This has not just been among the general public who, increasingly disillusioned with conventional medicine, have been turning in their thousands to alternative remedies, but also among the commercial drug manufacturers and pharmacological researchers who have shown a growing interest in investigating the claims made by “folk” medicine for herbal products. Many such claims have now been shown to have a scientific basis although in many cases the exact mechanism is still not understood. One of the problems with herbal...