Health risks of herbal medicines in Asia and beyond

Herbal or Botanical Medicine

Herbal Medicines Pose Health Risk to Millions in Asia. By Sifferlin, A.

Herbal or botanical medicines are increasingly being used today. There are various articles as well as scholarly journals that have been written on herbal medicine. This paper will analyze two magazine articles and two scholarly journals on herbal medicines.

Herbal Medicines Pose Health Risk to Millions in Asia

The article talks of a particular herbal remedy that was banned in U.S.A and European countries but still being used in Asia. There was a connection made by researchers on an epidemic of kidney on women in Belgium that had been using herbal medicine to lose their weight. The kidney problems were attributed to Aristolochic acid belonging to birthwort plants. This is an agent that is used to treat arthritis, asthma and weight loss. Despite the fact that herbs containing aristolochic acid have been banned some people are still being exposed particularly in Asia. Researchers found that herbal medicines that contain the acid are still being purchased online. The reason the article was written was to provide a diagnostic classification aristolochic acid nephropathy which is a kidney failure that is associated with the acid. It finally gives a caution to users indicating that active agents in these herbal medicines can change. This article generally show the fact that despite the knowledge of some effects of herbal medicine they are still in use (Sifferlin, 2013 ).

University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC)

The article of 2011 University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) is about the history and the use of herbal medicine. The article summarizes the herbal medicine also known as botanical medicine to refer to the usage of plant seeds, roots, leaves and berries for the medicinal purposes. The article also indicates that use of herbal is today becoming more mainstream as improvements in the quality control with the advances in a clinical research shows the significance of the herbal medicine in treating and prevention of diseases (Herbal medicine, 2011).

How Herbs work and used

The herb contains ingredients that work together in producing a beneficial effect. For instance, the type of the environments in which the herbs plants grow may affect the herb. The use of the herbs has drastically increased over the past 40 years. Presently, the medicines are categorized as the dietary supplements by the people of United States of America (USA). This therefore means that, herbal supplements can be sold before being tested to prove that they are safe as well as effective (Herbal medicine, 2011).

Veterinary Botanical Medicine Association (VBMA)

In the article Veterinary Botanical Medicine Association (VBMA), the article has been dedicated to develop a responsible herbal practice. Veterinary Botanical Medicine Association are groups of herbalists that are dedicated so as to develop herbal practices that are responsible by encouraging the research and keeping the herbal tradition alive so as to increase the acceptance of herbal medicine for the animals (Lyon, 2011).

History of Herbal plants

Plants for many days have been used for medicinal purposes to prevent diseases. The article shows the use of herbal medicine as early as 3000 BC. Various indigenous cultures which include the Africans and the native America used the medicine in healing rituals. The research carried also showed that most people are still using the medicine for the same purposes. In the early 19th century, chemical were readily available, which made most scientists to start extracting as well as modifying the ingredients that were found from the plants. Later, the chemists on the other hand began making new version of the plants compounds and with time the use of herbal medicines started to decline in favor of drugs.