SCIENTISTS CALL FOR BETTER REGULATION OF BOTANICALS

CHICAGO (Reuters Health) - Consultant Peggy Brevoort called on
scientists to do more clinical studies into the effectiveness of
popular herbal medicines like ginseng and echinacea.

Brevoort owned an herbal extract company and is past president of the
American Herbal Products Association. She gave a talk, ``Current
status of the US Market for Medicinal Botanicals,'' here Monday during
the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists Midwest regional
meeting.

``I think we are standing on the brink of tremendous changes,
analytical breakthroughs and new research with regard to how these
products are used,'' Brevoort said.

Increased regulation will naturally follow as more big drug companies
start selling herbal products, Brevoort said. For example, companies
like Bayer, Abbott Laboratories and American Home Products already are
selling natural medicines for everything from pre-menstrual syndrome
to high cholesterol.

Based on a recent survey in ``Prevention,'' Brevoort said the market
for herbal medicine is growing. The survey showed about 30% of
Americans reach for natural compounds first when they don't feel well.

The top-selling herbs included ginseng, garlic, St. John's Wort and
gingko, Brevoort said.

Customers said they used the herbs instead of traditional
over-the-counter drugs because they had fewer side effects or because
they cost less money, according to the survey.

Brevoort said the National Institutes of Health's decision to set up a
Center for Complimentary and Alternative Medicine was a good sign.
Even better, she said, the agency will fund a total of $7.5 million
for research into the use of herbal treatments.

Meanwhile, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has yet to define
its role in the herbal arena. The FDA did recently step in to prevent
companies from marketing healthy snacks as herbal supplements,
Brevoort said. They tried to sell everything from St. John's wort soup
to ginseng breakfast cereal.

In the United States, consumers spend nearly $5 billion per year on
natural supplements, said another speaker at the conference, Dr.
Geoffrey Cordell, a scientist from the University of Illinois at
Chicago. And Americans are not alone: 88% of the world's population
relies on plants for health care, he added.

Medicinal plants will become even more important in the future,
Cordell said, since predictions show the world population will
increase to 9 billion by 2050. Due to tropical rainforest destruction,
however, experts estimate another 60,000 plant species will be lost by
then.

``Whatever drug discovery efforts we make today are going to be for
our descendants,'' Cordell said. ``Our future focus needs to be
looking at health care in a sustainable manner.''