A significant number of herbal products have been associated with hepatotoxicity.
Unlike pharmaceutic products that undergo clinical trials before release to the public,
herbal products have no preapproval evaluation time period in which liver injury may
be identified. The association of hepatic injury with an herbal product is recognized
only after numerous patients have contracted disease. This problem is confounded by
the fact that less than 1% of the adverse events associated with dietary supplements
are reported to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) [
[1]
]. Attribution of liver injury to a specific herbal product may be difficult. There
are few clinical or laboratory manifestations that specifically suggest that liver
injury is the result of a specific herbal. The most important clue often is the temporal
relationship between initiation of the herbal product and the appearance of liver
injury, and of equal importance is the resolution of the injury following withdrawal
of the herbal product [
[2]
].To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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