Herbal hepatotoxicity

Abstract

There is appropriate concern about the potential risk for hepatotoxicity from herbal products because they are unregulated and therefore not standardized with regard to their contents. This is particularly the case for the crude herbals that are commonly formulated as a mixture, so that their ingredients may be ambiguous and even contain harmful contaminants. Presented here is an overview of the more commonly recognized herbal products that have been reported to be associated with liver injury. Although many of them are clearly implicated, there are some, particularly those identified solely through an occasional case report, for which the relationship is uncertain.