J Korean Med Assoc.  2005 Apr;48(4):333-338. 10.5124/jkma.2005.48.4.333.

Medicinal Herbs can Cause Cardiovascular Side Effects

• Baek SH

• KMID: 1905311
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.5124/jkma.2005.48.4.333

Abstract

The concerns about the safety issues of medicinal herbs are increasing. There are typical medicinal herbs that affect the cardiovascular system such as digitalis and aconitium. Digitalis is one of the main drugs in use to manage a heart disease under the controlled safety and effectiveness. On the contrary, the Aconitium plant's roots are potentially poisonous and can cause serious complex ventricular arrhythmias and fatalities due to their low safety margin. However, the herb has been used in traditional Chinese medicine mainly to treat musculoskeletal disorders, without any safety control. Natural products including herbs derived from plants are not always safe. The use of medicinal herbs needs medical validation in terms of their safety and effectiveness through a scientific inspection and strict standardization for the quality control. Therefore it is urgent to initiate a nation-wide reporting system to timely document any side effects from medicinal herbs adversely affecting the public health.

Keyword

Medicinal herb; Cardiovascular; Side effects

MeSH Terms

Arrhythmias, Cardiac
Biological Products
Cardiovascular System
Digitalis
Heart Diseases
Medicine, Chinese Traditional
Plants, Medicinal*
Public Health
Quality Control
Biological Products

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