Could the official registration of herbal medicines be seen as medical approval? That鈥檚 the concern after the UK鈥檚 Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) registered its first: an arnica gel for aches and pains last week.
For a herbal medicine to be allowed on the register, its maker must show that it is safe and manufactured to a sufficiently high standard. The maker must also provide proof, not of efficacy, but that the substance has been used in traditional medicine for many years.
The MHRA argues that without this new system herbal products would be completely unregulated, but others say the decision is a cop-out, opening the door to remedies of no proven worth. Conventional medicines have to be thoroughly tested in clinical trials to prove that they work.
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鈥淚t鈥檚 shameless,鈥� says David Colquhoun, professor of pharmacology at University College London. 鈥淢edicines work or don鈥檛 work, and they should be labelled accordingly,鈥� he says.
鈥淢edicines work or don鈥檛 work, and they should be labelled accordingly鈥�
All European Union countries must have similar laws by 2011 to comply with an EU directive on herbal medicines that allows 鈥渢he requirement to demonstrate efficacy to be replaced by the need to demonstrate traditional use鈥�, an MHRA spokesman says.
