Safety pharmacology of herbal medicines in South Africa
Date
2019Author
Okem, Ambrose
Takyi-Williams, John
Van Wyk, Riaan
Grobler, Anne
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
The use of herbal medicine for treating various ailments has a
deep history in South African traditional medicine. South Africa has a
rich floral biodiversity which has been exploited for centuries mainly
for day-to-day healthcare needs and food security. Almost 70% of
South Africans rely on traditional medicine (TM) for their primary
healthcare needs. There is a misconception that “natural” means safe
from toxicity. However, a number of herbal medicines have been
reported for severe side effects such as hepatotoxicity, renal failure
and allergic reactions. The safety of TM is now a major concern for
both health authorities and the general public. Safety pharmacology
of herbal medicines is intended to detect potential adverse functional
effects on various organ systems. The proposed criteria of safety
pharmacology for herbal medicine should be the same as for
Western drugs. The 10 most frequently used South African medicinal
plants will be selected for this study. The Irwin test will be conducted
to detect any untoward toxicity using Sprague-Dawley rats (n = 3). Aqueous extracts of the selected plants will be administered to the
animals by oral gavage and the control group will receive solvent
blank. The administered doses will exceed the therapeutic range just
enough to produce moderate adverse effect. Telemetered rats will be
used to assess the effects the selected herbal medicines will have on
the core battery such as the cardiovascular, respiratory and CNS
systems. All the experiments will follow the ARRIVE guidelines.
Behaviours and clinical signals observed in the Irwin test, as well as
data from telemetered rats will be used to identify the principle
effects of all the test substances. South Africa is at the verge of
incorporating traditional medicine into the mainstream healthcare
system, robust safety pharmacology studies will ensure the safe of
use of herbal medicine
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10394/33321https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1056871919303260
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vascn.2019.106608