Uppsala Reports Long Reads – The colour of signals

Herbal remedies have been used for thousands of years to treat what ails us. Yet why do we still know so little about their potential side effects compared to modern medicines?

This episode is part of the Uppsala Reports Long Reads series – the most topical stories from UMC’s pharmacovigilance news site, brought to you in audio format. Find the original article here.

After the read, we speak to author Daniele Sartori to learn more about the challenges in herbal pharmacovigilance.

Tune in to find out:

• Why the risks of herbals are rarely discussed
• How to encourage safety data collection for herbals
• How to improve herbal nomenclature and regulation

Want to know more?

Here are some of the resources cited in the episode:

• Underreporting of adverse reactions to herbal remedies is driven by our attitude towards herbals themselves, but also by a lack of training on herbal medicines in healthcare curricula.
• It is possible to safely use herbal medicines together with other medicines, but we must keep in mind some critical issues related to their interaction.
• Simple videos can dramatically increase public awareness of ADR reporting schemes.
• Kew Gardens’ Medicinal Plant Names Services offers a systematic overview of medicinal plants and their accepted scientific names.
• The American Botanical Council suggests methods to uncover attempts to adulterate plant extracts.

For a comprehensive overview of herbal pharmacovigilance, check out this recent book by Joanne Barnes and colleagues covering advances, challenges, and international perspectives in the field.

For more on Daniele’s scoping review of signals or the thorny nomenclature of medicinal plants, listen to these episodes from the Drug Safety Matters archive:

•  The evidence for signals
• Navigating the plant names jungle

Finally, don’t forget to ­subscribe to the monthly Uppsala Reports newsletter for free regular updates from the world of pharmacovigilance.

Join the conversation on social media
Follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, X, or Bluesky and share your thoughts about the show with the hashtag #DrugSafetyMatters.

Got a story to share?
We’re always looking for new content and interesting people to interview. If you have a great idea for a show, get in touch!

About UMC
Read more about Uppsala Monitoring Centre and how we promote safer use of medicines and vaccines for everyone everywhere.