Common risks of adulterated and mislabeled herbal preparations

Abstract

Due to the growing trend of returning to nature and the fear of adverse reactions from conventional medicines, people are increasingly resorting to the use of herbal preparations. Because of long-term use and natural origin these preparations give a sense of security. But herbal formulations also possess undesirable effects and, among other dangers, present a risk connected with deliberate addition of synthetic compounds, deliberate or unintentional replacement of the plant species or simply a risk of mislabeling. While the replacement of the plant species occurs in a very different groups of herbal products, reports of added illicit synthetic substances often include groups of herbal weight-loss preparations, sexual enhancers, preparations for treatment of rheumatic and inflammatory diseases, antidiabetic and blood pressure lowering preparations. In the world of Internet ordering, these are the dangers that everyone should be aware of. In this article, we reviewed the safety issues related to adulterated or mislabeled herbal products.

Keywords: Adulteration; Contamination; Herbal preparations; Mislabeling.