Materia Medica Malaysiana

Doc: Herbal drugs may not be safe

KUALA LUMPUR: Natural herbal products are not necessarily safe and effective in treating diseases as they have not undergone tests, said a pharmacologist from University of Strathclyde in Britain.

Dr Brian L Furman said interest in such products was increasing as people were losing faith in conventional medicine.

“Some people in the Britain turn to natural products because they believe it is safe.

“They think that because it is called natural products it is naturally safe. That's purely a false perception,” he said after delivering a talk “Biomedical Sciences at Strathclyde - Drug Discovery from Natural Products” at Technology Park Malaysia yesterday.

“My conception of herbal (or natural) products is that it is another route to getting a new medicine,” he said, adding that the problem with natural products was that many had yet to go through systematic scientific procedures.

Dr Furham said for some natural products, the amount of active ingredients could change enormously under different conditions, “which means we can't predict what the dose is going to be.”

He cautioned those using natural products to find out about the amount of active ingredients they could produce, whether they were safe and effective.

He also pointed out the dangers in mixing natural products with conventional medicine which could lead to harmful interactions.

On the prospect of natural products, he said, the pharmaceutical industry was interested in using pure compounds from natural products that could control diseases more effectively.

Dr Furman is currently involved in research of potential anti-obesity agents.