Some of the significant errors found in this article include:

·      Foods such as soy milk and grapefruit juice are listed as foods. 

·      Also included as "herbs" are Chan Su (Chinese toad skin extract), Gossypol (an experimental male contraceptive derived from Cotton seed, only used in China), Tetrandrine (an alkaloid extracted from Stephania tetrandra and not available in the U.S. or Europe), and Yohimbine (an alkaloid extracted from Yohimbe, Yohimbine is a prescription drug). 

·      The authors also include Uzara root, an herb so obscure I have never heard of it and Gynura divaricata which is a little-known folk medicine in China.

·      Beyond these "small faults" the article mentions two cardiac glycoside containing plants, Strophanthus (misspelled as Storphanthus in the article) and Oleander, neither of which is available in the U.S. or Canada as a herbal product.

·      Finally, the authors have selectively chosen (it is possible sheer ignorance is at fault here) to list adverse effects of herbs, even when more recent studies have disproven these theoretical risks.  Many books and articles suggest that there might be a risk of administering Hawthorn along with cardiac glycosides.  A 2003 human trial (Tankanow, et al, 2003), clearly showed that there was no interaction between these 2 medications.

·      Also cited is the widely discredited clinical report by Siegel on Ginseng Abuse Syndrome.  In this paper the author noted many effects of Ginseng use including hypertension, behavioral changes and diarrhea, all of which turned out to be caused by excessive coffee drinking by test subjects.

It is truly sad when such uninformed and flawed papers are given the medical "seal of approval."  It creates and adds to the medical profession's and public's fear of herbs, most of which are very safe.  Secondly, it spreads misinformation which, as we see by the Siegel article published in 1979, is difficult to erase.  And finally it obscures the accurate information that could benefit the medical profession, such as possible interactions between St. John's wort and Digoxin or garlic and Dan Shen (Salvia miltiorrhiza) with anticoagulants.

The last part of the article discusses the lack of regulatory oversight and quality control with herbal products.  I whole-heartedly agree the authors of this and similar articles need more regulatory oversight and quality control as this article is ample evidence of neither in many medical journals.