Incidence and Clinical Impact of Adverse Reactions Associated with Herbal Medicines

The global rise in the use of herbal medicines has led to an increased need for comprehensive pharmacovigilance to deal with the related adverse drug reactions (ADRs) properly. This article reviews the prevalence of herbal toxicities and their clinical consequences, using data from international databases like VigiBase. The studies indicate that the median of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) rates lie between 1.42% and 3.1%, being most common the gastrointestinal problems (28.7%) and dermatological disorders (20.1%). Among the adverse drug reactions, severe clinical effects such as herbinduced liver injury (HILI) and nephrotoxicity are safety concerns that are very often amplified by the misconception that "natural is safe" and the lack of regulation over product quality. In addition, complex herb-drug interactions (HDIs) can be very dangerous for patients on polypharmacy, particularly when the medicines have a narrow therapeutic index. The researchers implied that to eliminate these risks, there will need to be global harmonization of regulations, and practitioners' education should be enhanced along with the systematic introduction of "herbovigilance" into the traditional clinical practices to safeguard the public health in the increasingly integrative medical scenario.