4 Things You Must Know Before Taking Herbal Remedies

How can you pick a safe herbal remedy? Know these facts before you swallow:

• "Natural" or "herbal" doesn't mean "safe." Many plants survive in nature by producing chemicals that either taste bad or are poisonous to their predators. Some can be poisonous to humans, too, depending on the dose. Stay within the recommended dose ranges.


• Price doesn't indicate quality. For any particular herb, prices vary widely, and there's no way to tell how much the manufacturer has invested in production and quality control versus promotion or profit.


• What's inside doesn't always match the label. The chemical composition of plants varies widely, and so can the supplements made from them, because of the part of the plant used, the age of the plant at harvest, and the growing conditions. Many herbs are standardized, meaning one plant chemical is used as a marker, and extracts are produced so that they have the same standardized concentration of the marker substance.


• It's not all guesswork. Look for products with the USP-verified logo. This means the United States Pharmacopeia, a reliable nonprofit science organization, has tested and confirmed that a product contains the ingredients listed on the label, in the amount and potency listed, and that it doesn't contain harmful contaminants. You can find a list of supplements verified by the USP at www.usp.org. One caution: This doesn't mean the herb works. It means the quantity and quality on the label is accurate. Effectiveness requires scientific scrutiny, which is gradually happening for many herbal preparations.