Subject: Re: Toxic effects of herb tea article

From: [email-masked] (Mark D. Gold)
Date: 6 Nov 94 13:39:43 -0500

>Newsgroups: sci.med.pharmacy,sci.skeptic,sci.med,sci.med.immunology,
>            alt.med.cfs,alt.med.fibromyalgia
>From: [email-masked] (Camilla Cracchiolo)
>Subject: Toxic effects of herb tea article
>Date: Thu, 3 Nov 1994 04:39:17 GMT
>
>A while ago, someone (I forget who) posted an abstract from Archives
>of Environmental Health on the toxic effects of herbal teas.  The
>article was by Paul Ridker of Harvard Medical School, and he looked
>at 26 common herbal teas for toxic effects.  It was in the May/June
>1987 issue of the journal.  I requested that someone send me a copy
>of the full article, and several kind souls responded; notably Bob
>Tennent, who put the article in the mail to me right away. (Thanks,
>Bob!)  :)   Since I have gotten many requests by e-mail for the
>information in Ridker's article, I am posting this summary here.

Camilla,

While I don't want to get into a debate about the safety of herbs on 
multiple newsgroups which are unrelated to Herbalism, I would like to 
point out that the Ridker article has the following problems:

1.  Several incorrect scientific statements.
2.  Lists toxic plants that are not ever used as herbs.
3.  References that point only to "Letters to the Editor" in journals 
    and some unreferenced "toxicities."
4.  Plays up danger of herbs currently used by millions of people 
    without any problem.

I don't have time to address every herb (or known poisonous plant) 
listed in Ridker's article, so I'll just address the more popular 
herbs.

>From  booklet by Steve Horne:

                           Burdock

   Charge:  In 1978, a major American medical journal printed a report 
   claiming that a woman had severe toxic reactions after drinking 
   burdock root tea.  The article was entitled "Burdock root tea 
   poisoning."  It was reported that burdock caused atropine poisoning 
   in this woman.  Based on this one case, burdock root is frequently 
   listed as causing hallucinations, bizarre behavior and other serious 
   toxic effects.

   Response:  Originally it was said that the burdock contained 30% 
   atropine, but after it was pointed out that no plant on earth 
   contains that much atropine, the figure was reduced to 3%.  However, 
   the truth is that burdock contains no atropine at all.  Dr. Daniel 
   Mowrey called the main investigator on this case and learned that 
   they never tested the identity of the herb.  Hence, this was a case 
   involving adulteration of the herb or misidentification of the plant. 
   These are real problems, but have nothing to do with the toxicity of 
   burdock.  They merely demonstrate that herbs need to be obtained from 
   reputable sources.  Burdock is a harmless wild vegetable.  It is 
   eaten in China, was consumed as food by North American Indians and is 
   listed as an edible plant in nearly every reputable textbook on the 
   subject of edible plants.

                            Chamomile

   Charges:  Many articles have claimed that persons who are allergic to 
   ragweed may suffer near-fatal allergic reactions to this herb.

   Response:  Chamomile is a very popular herb tea in Europe, where it 
   is available at nearly every hotel and restaurant.  It has been used 
   for thousands of years and is currently used by millions of people 
   daily.  The truth is, "there has only been one recorded case of a 
   serious allergic reaction to Chamomile tea, and one case in history 
   is no case at all against Chamomile; especially considering the 
   thousands of hayfever sufferers a day consume [it] with not ill 
   effect."

Nutmeg in reasonable amounts is safe.  The same goes for hops
(fortunately for beer drinkers).

Senna and Buckthorn are herbal laxatives.  They should be used for only a 
short period of time where indicated.  Sometimes, they are used as a 
small part of an herbal formula to increase perastalsis.  
Obviously, large, frequent doses of herbal laxatives (even though
they are milder than some drug store-bought laxatives) is a bad idea.

>NERVOUS SYSTEM TOXICITY:
>
>Ridker divides nervous system reactions into reactions of the
>sympathetic nervous system (the part of the nervous system
>controlled by adrenalin) and central nervous system (CNS).  One of
>the things he neglects to mention about herbs that contain monoamine
>oxidase inhibitors is that these compounds are among the more
>dangerous of antidepressant medications.  If a person consumes an
>MAO inhibitor with foods containing tyramine or with certain other
>medications, potentially fatal rises in blood pressure can occur.
>In a recent discussion in sci.med.pharmacy, we were concerned about
>the use of MAOI containing herbs; if a person is taking these herbs
>I feel it is wise to observe all the standard MAOI dietary and other
>precautions at a minimum.

You did not mention which herbs contain MAOs.  More importantly, you 
did not differentiate between the effects of reversable and non-
reversable MAOs.  (Please tell me which type are found in which herbs).  
Finally, I have never seen any MAO-related negative reactions from 
herbs reported.

>This section also deals with reports of hepatic veno-occlusive
>disease.  Since laypeople may not be familiar with veno-occlusive
>liver disease (VOD), I quote the following section from "How Much Comfrey
>Is Safe?" by Jay D. Mann:

Jay Mann wrote this article as a concerned layperson -- it is not a 
published article (as of 3 months ago).  While I disagree with some 
of what he says in the article (and have debated him on the 
Net), I share his desire to have contraindications listed on herbal 
formulas.

Persons who want to use comfrey *internally* for extended periods 
can purchase the herb with the small amount of pyrrolizidine 
alkaloids removed from Herb Pharm (800/348-4372).

Finally, there are quite a few excellant books for laypersons and 
scientists available from the American Botanical Council 
(800/373-7105).  The subject areas include (but are not limited to) 
traditional Herbalism, Materia Medicas, Pharmacognosy, 
Phytochemicals, Botany, and Plant Identification.  It is much better 
to rely on these books than poorly researched/written articles such as
the one by Paul Ridker.

                            - Mark
                        [email-masked]