Professor John McLachlan Durham University’s School of Medicine backs herbal remedies regulation : A NORTH East expert has backed the regulation of herbal remedies to ensure they are safe, ethically sourced and effective.
Professor John McLachlan, from Durham University’s School of Medicine, was speaking as many herbal medicines are due to be removed from shops from April 30 as a result of an European Union directive.
It states that treatments can only be approved for sale if they have been in use for at least 15 years in the EU in a move aimed at protecting consumers from potentially damaging remedies.
Prof McLachlan said: “Unlike most alternative medicine approaches, such as homeopathic products, herbal remedies can have real biological effects.
“Indeed, many modern medicines are derived from plant materials. However, you can’t assume that because something is natural, it is safe, benign or effective.
“Many of the most poisonous substances known are perfectly ‘natural’. A risk of herbal and ‘natural’ remedies is that they may vary in quality and quantity of the active ingredient, and, as in a number of recent cases, may even be adulterated with powerful medicines in variable doses and purity.
“This means they do indeed have effects, but may also have serious side effects, dangers not appreciated by the person taking them.”
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