herbal quality

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Productive discussions at the first Natural Products Futures Forum

Michael Heinrich presenting at the Natural Products Futures Forum

At the end of this week I attended the inaugural Natural Products Futures Forum, hosted in Ballina and Lismore by Southern Cross University’s National Centre for Naturopathic Medicine. I was attending as a representative of Torrens University, providing an educational perspective to what turned out to be a very successful weekend of brainstorming.

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Are comfrey, coltsfoot and borage harmful to humans?

Graphical abstract showing key results from the research paper

For many decades now, unsaturated pyrrolizidine alkaloids have been known to be potentially harmful, causing specific types of liver and lung damage, and also being carcinogenic. However the question has long been “do the amounts in key medicinal plants warrant concern?”. Many regulatory authorities around the world think so, with some of these plants being restricted for medicinal usage. This research project set out to determine the level of evidence for harm from some of these plants.

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