EXPERTS SAY HERBAL MEDICINE WORKS BUT CHECKS NEEDED

LONDON (Reuters) - Herbal medicines, a booming business in the United
States and Europe, are effective in treating minor or chronic
illnesses but studies are needed to ensure they are safe, scientists
said Monday.

Medical experts at a day-long conference on the efficiency and safety
of herbal medicine agreed it could complement synthetic drug
treatments but said it should be controlled because the treatments are
becoming so popular.

``It is important because people use it. Between 1990 and 1997 there
was a 380 percent increase in uptake in herbal treatments in the
United States,'' Professor Edzard Ernst of the University of Exeter
told a news conference.

The conference coincided with a move by Britain to regulate herbal
medicines. The Department of Health invited consumer groups and
doctors to discuss ways to provide the public with a range of safe,
high quality herbal remedies.

People are increasingly choosing plant remedies because they are
natural, they work for some ailments, they have fewer side effects
than synthetic drugs, are generally cheaper and they are presumed to
be safe, which scientists said is not entirely correct.

``The general belief that natural products are always safe has been
proven inaccurate,'' said Dr Bart Halkes, of the University of Utrecht
in the Netherlands.

Emphasizing the need to assess products for quality and safety, he
said plants could be contaminated by heavy metals such as lead and
mercury, or pesticides. The original material in the medicine could
also be substituted, through ignorance or incompetence, with something
else that could be dangerous.

``Herbal medicine products should be adequately controlled,'' Halkes
said, adding that the use of known toxic plants should be restricted.

Although the remedies have been around for thousands of year, a desire
for alternatives to synthetic drugs has increased demand for herbal
medication. A market research report estimated total sales of herbal
medicines at $1.8 billion in Germany and $1.1 billion in France.

Research has shown that ginkgo biloba can improve memory in patients
with Alzheimer's disease and St. John's Wort can relieve mild and
moderate depression. Scientists are conducting a long-term study on
the effectiveness of crataegus extract for treating patients with
heart failure.