A review of Chinese botanical product-drug interactions

Many Asian communities throughout the world have used Chinese botanical products for centuries. Recently, the usage of these botanical products has also increased in Western societies. Although the use of Chinese botanical products is on the rise, the potential and significance of interaction with Western drugs is not widely recognized and well characterized. While there are very few adequate, well-controlled clinical studies designed to investigate the potential for interaction between Chinese botanical products and drugs, in the English literature, there are examples of documented interaction between commonly used Chinese botanical products and currently available Western drugs, and these case reports will be reviewed in this chapter. In addition, issues that are more pertinent to the evaluation of the importance and clinical relevance of Chinese botanical product-drug interactions will be discussed.