Aryana Libris

Authors : Barnes Joanne - Anderson Linda A. - Phillipson J. David
Title : Herbal medicines Third edition
Year : 2007

Link download : Barnes_Joanne_-_Herbal_medicines.zip

Preface to the Third Edition. This third edition of Herbal Medicines: A guide for healthcare professionals comes a little over ten years after publication of the first edition, and reflects continuing public, professional, research, commercial and other interests in medicinal plants. At the same time, there have been ongoing concerns surrounding the quality, safety and efficacy of herbal medicinal products, and heightened awareness of the need to protect the public against poor-quality and unsafe products. Pharmacists, doctors, nurses, herbalmedicine practitioners and other healthcare providers should be knowledgeable about these issues and should be able to advise patients and the public on the safe, effective and appropriate use of herbal preparations; this book aims to provide pharmacists and other healthcare professionals with summarised, yet sufficiently detailed, scientific information to enable them to do so. Herbal medicines continue to be a popular healthcare choice with the general public not only for health maintenance and wellbeing, minor ailments (e.g. coughs and colds), chronic conditions (e.g. back pain) and serious chronic diseases (e.g. asthma, cancer, depression, diabetes), but also for 'enhancement' of functions or processes, such as the use of Ginkgo biloba products for memory enhancement. The general public receives information on herbal medicines through various sources, including popular magazines and newspaper articles, as well as television, internet and other sources of advertising literature provided by manufacturers. Much of this information is presented uncritically, and targeted to the consumer along with details of substantial price reductions on products, including continuous sales promotions, that often are the main recommendations for the products. There is an increasing number of products that respond to the public demand for so-called 'lifestyle' medicines, and manufacturers market, for example, herbal alternatives to Viagra (sildenafil), 'slimming/ weight-loss' preparations, 'hangover' cures, and breast-enlargement products. Typically, these types of products are sold over the internet without any assurance of their quality, safety and efficacy. The last decade has seen several important developments with respect to herbal medicines. The most significant of these has been the introduction of a new regulatory framework for traditional herbal medicines in the UK and the 27 other member states of the European Union (EU) following the implementation in 2005 of the EU Directive on Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products. Several other countries worldwide have introduced new legislation to regulate herbal medicinal products: Australia and Canada, for example, have been particularly active in this respect. That the regulatory landscape for herbal medicines has changed substantially has required a full revision of the 'Introduction to the Monographs', which in this edition can be found under 'How to Use Herbal Medicines'; this now includes details of new legislation in Europe and a summary of regulations for herbal medicines in several other countries. ...