Although lots of books have been published about herbal therapy, a comprehensive overview of the adverse effects of botanical medicines is not available. Yet such an overview is badly needed, because of the enormous rise in the use of herbal remedies. The book series will provide approximately 150 monographs on herbal remedies and plant-derived drugs. Each monograph will provide introductory information on Botany, Chemistry, Pharmacology and Uses, followed by an Adverse Reaction Profile subdivided according to organ and function. The World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe...

This book is the first volume of a series on the adverse effects of herbal drugs. We begin this series not because we are opposed to phytotherapy, or because we want to share our ammunition with adversaries of herbal drug treatments. We realize that several remedies of natural origin (e. g., senna, ipecac) have retained a prominent place in the conventional drug armamentarium. We also recognize that the general public appreciates so-called mildly acting herbs for self-medication purposes. We acknowledge that even when such herbs have no pronounced pharmacological acti- vity, their...