Herbal medicines
Herbal medicine is a complementary therapy that uses plants or plant extracts to treat illness. There are numerous herbal products available that claim to treat a wide range of problems, from depression to colds and flu.

What is herbal medicine?
Many well-established medicines come from plants. For example morphine comes from poppies, aspirin from willow bark, and digoxin (a treatment for an irregular heart beat) from foxgloves.

Traditional herbal medicine is just one of the many different approaches to using plants as remedies. Others include phytotherapy and Chinese herbal medicine. Traditional herbal medicine has been used in Britain for centuries and it remains popular, even in the era of scientific medicine and modern pharmaceuticals.

Like many complementary therapies, herbal medicine aims to be holistic - it aims to treat the whole person, not just the symptoms, and to encourage the body to heal itself. Herbal practitioners believe that the delicate chemical balance of the whole herb is needed for greatest effect and to reduce potential side-effects. Different parts of the same plant, such as the flowers or seeds, can have very different actions. Herbal medicine is not about isolating the active ingredients from a plant which is the way that conventional medicines are often derived.

Do they work?
There are herbal medicines available that claim to treat almost any common complaint, but there is usually limited scientific evidence that these work. Some herbal treatments are more established, and have undergone some clinical testing. These include:

St John's wort, for the treatment of mild to moderate depression,
black cohosh, for menopausal symptoms,
echinacea, to reduce the symptoms of colds,
garlic, to reduce blood cholesterol levels and potentially lower the risk of heart disease,
ginger, to relieve nausea and vomiting,
ginkgo biloba, to improve mental performance in people with Alzheimer's disease,
hawthorn berries, for mild heart failure,
horse chestnut, for chronic venous insufficiency,
saw palmetto, for enlarged prostate.
However, the herbal medicines that are not listed may also be effective. The evidence for these is conflicting and further studies are needed.

Are they safe?
Although some herbal medicines, such as the ones listed above, may be helpful for certain problems, this does not necessarily mean they are safe in all situations. They should not be used during pregnancy.

Like any medicine, herbal remedies can have side-effects and may interact with other drugs. There have even been reports of fatal toxic effects with some herbal products, although this is rare with products that originate in the UK. At present, most herbal products fall outside of the regulation of medicines, which means you can't be sure whether there is evidence that a herbal product works, what it contains and in what concentration, or whether it was manufactured properly. Planned legislation should introduce a system of recognising traditional herbal medicines, with new regulatory controls.

If you have heart disease such as angina, high blood pressure or glaucoma, herbal treatments should not be taken without supervision from a trained herbalist or a doctor. There are also conditions that are not suitable for treatment by a herbalist, such as life-threatening illnesses, epilepsy or type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetes.