Quality of herbal medicines: Challenges and solutions

WHO, 2003 Ernst, 2006, Herbal medicines—they are popular, but are they also safe?, Eur J Clin Pharmacol, 62, 1, 10.1007/s00228-005-0070-2 Kosalec, 2009, Contaminants of medicinal herbs and herbal products, Arh Hig Rada Toksikol, 60, 485, 10.2478/10004-1254-60-2009-2005 WHO, 1993 Ernst, 2002, Toxic heavy metals and undeclared drugs in Asian herbal medicines, Trends Pharmacol Sci, 23, 136, 10.1016/S0165-6147(00)01972-6 Xue, 2008, Overview on external contamination sources in traditional Chinese medicines, Mode Tradit Chin Med Mater Med, 10, 91 Ernst, 2001, Heavy metals in traditional Chinese medicines: a systematic review, Clin Pharmacol Ther, 70, 497, 10.1067/mcp.2001.120249 Ernst, 2002, Heavy metals in traditional Indian remedies, Eur J Clin Pharmacol, 57, 891, 10.1007/s00228-001-0400-y Ko, 1998, Adulterants in Asian patent medicines, N Engl J Med, 339, 847, 10.1056/NEJM199809173391214 Obi, 2006, Heavy metal hazards of Nigerian herbal remedies, Sci Total Environ, 369, 35, 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2006.04.024 Kalny, 2007, Determination of selected microelements in polish herbs and their infusions, Sci Total Environ, 381, 99, 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2007.03.026 Caldas, 2004, Cadmium, mercury and lead in medicinal herbs in Brazil, Food Chem Toxicol, 42, 599, 10.1016/j.fct.2003.11.004 Garcia-Rico, 2007, Content and daily intake of copper, zink, lead, cadmium and mercury from dietary supplements in Mexico, Food Chem Toxicol, 45, 1599, 10.1016/j.fct.2007.02.027 Yee, 2005, Regulatory control of Chinese proprietary medicines in Singapore, Health Policy, 71, 133, 10.1016/j.healthpol.2003.09.013 Koh, 2000, Chinese proprietary medicines in Singapore: regulatory control of toxic heavy metals and undeclared drugs, Drug Saf, 23, 351, 10.2165/00002018-200023050-00001 Tian, 2006, Monitoring the heavy metals and pesticide residues in traditional Chinese medicines, Chin Pharm Aff, 20, 755 Melchart, 2001, Quality assurance and evaluation of Chinese medicinal drugs in a hospital of traditional Chinese medicine in Germany: a five-year report, Altern Ther, 7, S24 Jin, 2009, Current situation and suggestions on control of extrinsic harmful residues in Chinese medicinal materials, Chin Pharm Aff, 23, 639 Saper, 2004, Products heavy metal content of ayurvedic herbal medicine, JAMA, 292, 2868, 10.1001/jama.292.23.2868 Ang, 2008, Lead contamination in Eugenia dyeriana herbal preparations from different commercial sources in Malaysia, Food Chem Toxicol, 46, 1969, 10.1016/j.fct.2008.01.037 Ang, 2006, Contamination of mercury in tongkat Ali hitam herbal preparations, Food Chem Toxicol, 44, 1245, 10.1016/j.fct.2006.01.014 The Pharmacopoeia Commission of China, 2005 European Medicines Agency, 2006 Rong, 2006, Current research status in China on pesticide contamination of plant material used in making Chinese herbal medicines, Agrochemicals, 45, 302 Xue, 2008, Residues of 18 organochlorine pesticides in 30 traditional Chinese medicines, Chemosphere, 71, 1051, 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2007.11.014 Gao, 1999, Residues determination of cypermethrin, fenvalerate and deltamethrin in Radix Notoginseng, Radix Paeoniae Alba and American ginseng, Chin J Pharm Anal, 19, 31 Chen, 2006, Investigation and analysis of organochlorine pesticide residues in traditional Chinese medicinal, J Shaanxi Normal Univ, 34, 264 Li, 2003, Analysis of organochlorine pesticide residues in the imported American ginseng and Senna, Chin Tradit Herb Drug, 34, 610 Xia, 2008, Pyrethroid pesticide residues in medicinal plants in Guizhou GAP bases, Lishizhen Med Mater Med Res, 19, 3010 Zhang, 2009, Investigation on the organochlorine pesticides redidues in Chinese herbal materials from Guizhou GAP bases, J Shenyang Pharm Univ, 26, 473 Ma, 2005, Simply discussion on the residues of organochlorine pesticides in Chinese herbal materials, China Pharm, 16, 1667 Zhou, 2009, The situation and problems of using sulfur fumigation to process Chinese herbal materials, Lishizhen Med Mater Med Res, 20, 3104 MCA, 2002 Bugno, 2006, Occurrence of toxigenic fungi in herbal drugs, Braz J Microbiol, 37, 47, 10.1590/S1517-83822006000100009 Aziz, 1998, Contamination of some common medicinal plant samples and spices by fungi and their mycotoxins, Bot Bull Acad Sin, 39, 279 Thembo, 2007, Mycological and mycotoxin contamination of traditional herbal medicines, S Afr J Bot, 73, 316, 10.1016/j.sajb.2007.02.129 Ali, 2005, Evaluation of a method to determine the natural occurrence of aflatoxins in commercial traditional herbal medicines from Malaysia and Indonesia, Food Chem Toxicol, 43, 1763, 10.1016/j.fct.2005.05.019 Roy, 2003, Mycological problems of crude herbal drugs: overview and challenges, Ind Phytopathol, 56, 1 Gu, 2004, Determination of residual organic solvents in andrographolide microcapsules by GC, Chin J Pharm, 11, 685 Miller, 2007, A study of western pharmaceuticals contained within samples of Chinese herbal/patent medicines collected from New York City's Chinatown, Legal Med, 9, 258, 10.1016/j.legalmed.2007.04.001 Ernst, 2002, Adulteration of Chinese herbal medicines with synthetic drugs: a systematic review, J Intern Med, 252, 107, 10.1046/j.1365-2796.2002.00999.x Yang, 2007, Current counterfeit Chinese herbal material in the market, Strait Pharm J, 19, 60 Chan, 1993, Chinese herbal medicines revisited: a Hong Kong perspective, Lancet, 342, 1532, 10.1016/S0140-6736(05)80091-1 Vanhaelen, 1994, Identification of aristolochic acid in Chinese herbs, Lancet, 343, 174, 10.1016/S0140-6736(94)90964-4 Lord, 1999, Nephropathy caused by Chinese herbs in the UK, Lancet, 354, 481, 10.1016/S0140-6736(99)03380-2 WHO, 1999 Choi, 2002, Regulation and quality control of herbal drugs in Korea, Toxicology, 181–182, 581, 10.1016/S0300-483X(02)00487-0 Rotblatt, 2002 Wang, 2002, Current status and future direction of Chinese herbal medicine, Trends Pharmacol Sci, 23, 347, 10.1016/S0165-6147(02)02051-5 Bent, 2004, Commonly used herbal medicines in the United States: a review, Am J Med, 116, 478, 10.1016/j.amjmed.2003.10.036 Harkey, 2001, Variability in commercial ginseng products: an analysis of 25 preparations, Am J Clin Nutr, 73, 1101, 10.1093/ajcn/73.6.1101 WHO, 2006 Zhu, 2009, The problems and countermeasure in the establishment of GAP bases of Chinese herbal materials, China N Trad Chin Med, March Chen, 2003, A survey of bases for GAP of Chinese medicinal materials all over the country, Res Pract Chin Med, 17, 3 Yuan, 2004, The farmers say NO to GAP, China Med Guide, 10, 23 Brown, 1996, Phytotherapy: herbal medicine meets clinical science, NARD J, 118, 41 Zhou, 2008, Quality control of Chinese herbal medicines with chromatographic fingerprints, Se Pu, 26, 153 Kasper, 2008, Efficacy of St. John's wort extract WS 5570 in acute treatment of mild depression: a reanalysis of data from controlled clinical trials, Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci, 258, 59, 10.1007/s00406-007-0779-2 Ip, 2010, Quality assurance for Chinese herbal formulae: standardization of IBS-20, a 20-herb preparation, Chin Med, 5, 8, 10.1186/1749-8546-5-8 Zhang, 2005, The fundamental study on critical scientific problem of prescriptions—research and development modern Chinese medicines via the combination of standardized constituents, Chin J Nat Med, 3, 258 http://www.zdxb.zju.edu.cn [accessed in December 2010]. Lu, 2002, Current study of APL treatment in China, Int J Hematol, 76, 316, 10.1007/BF03165273 Wang, 2008, Dissection of mechanisms of Chinese medicinal formula Realgar-Indigo naturalis as an effective treatment for promyelocytic leukemia, Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 105, 4826, 10.1073/pnas.0712365105